Pigs do fly...when trying to avoid the chop

Video: As a truck transports it to a slaughterhouse, a daring pig makes a giant leap for pork freedom.

A video has emerged of a brave pig leaping from a truck which was taking the animal to its death. (Alek M | YouTube)

Loaded up into a van in South America, crammed in with fellow swines, and on its way to certain death, one pig decided their was still some hope for a longer, fuller life.

A video shot by passengers in a car driving behind a large truck transporting pigs to a slaughterhouse caught the moment that one of the pigs dramatically leapt from the side of the truck and seemed to survive the fall.

The pig can be seen at first struggling its way to the top of the truck before moving to the left side of the truck, peering over the edge and readying itself to make the freedom flight.

The pig then jumps, landing almost face first and then rolling for a few seconds until it reaches some grass on the side of the road. It then heaves itself up and appears to be perfectly fine, although the short video then cuts out.

YouTube commentators were surprisingly almost unanimous in their praise for the pig's bravery and its apparent intelligence to get out of the truck before it was too late.

The footage comes a few days after pictures emerged from China of another similar escape, when a pig jumped 16 feet from a slaughterhouse van in the Guangxi region.

While the current whereabouts of the South American pig above is unknown, the Chinese swine has been adopted by local police.