Last updated at 19:31 24 October 2007

There was no time for social niceties, table manners or even a please and thank you.







When little pigs insist on stopping for lunch, there's nothing much a mother on the move can do.

This sow and her litter had been roaming the New Forest in Hampshire when the youngsters decided it was time to tuck in.

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Rather than battle the might of a half dozen little squealers, she pulled up in the middle of the road and let them have lunch.

Motorists were forced to wait, with tailbacks stretching along the road.

Roaming pigs are a common sight this time of year as the pannage season gets under way, an ancient custom which allows pig farmers to turn their animals on to Crown land for up to 60 days of grazing.

"The sow was feeding her piglets in the middle of the road and there was no way of moving her," said Bernie Bedford, a local doctor who took the picture.

Dr Bedford, of Hythe, near Southampton, said: "I was driving along the B3079 Bramshaw to Landford road when I turned a bend and suddenly saw this amazing sight.

"Local radio even broadcast a warning that the pigs were a traffic hazard on that road.

"Cars had to carefully crawl around her but it wasn't easy."