"Pigs" are pets too!!

When i was contacted by the family giving up Pebbles my heart sank. This little pig had been living how all pets or as we call them now "companion animals" should live. She was part of the family ,living in the house with them. Snuggled deep into blanket's at night with the cat and dog watching TV with the family. What they ate she was treated , she had her special bowl , special treats and special breakfast. She had everything i want for all of them. I cried buckets over her before i even met her . I tried for months to find her a home like the one she had grown up in. Sadly she had to leave her family because the city prohibited swine , a pig is a pig so it seems.

Pigs as pets are not for every one and the same can be said about pretty well any species or breed. Not every one will have a snake and not every one will want a great Dane. But it is up the individual who is perpetuating the market of animals to educate themselves about the species before they buy one.

Rescuers will make sure you have, it is not easy to get one of our babies. You can't come over and simply fill out a form, pay the price and leave with an animal from any reputable rescuer. They will not put the animals in jeopardy again by taking risks. You will fill out a form and we will check your references and then we will come to your house. We will decide what is best for the animals in our care because we are the one picking up the pieces and putting them back together again . We don't enjoying crying to sleep every night and either do they.

I don't enjoy bringing a little pig here who is used to getting cooked oatmeal for breakfast because i couldn't find a comparable home . I don't enjoy worrying about there transition , there mourning for there families and there child like innocence of not understanding what they did wrong to end up here.

I tell them they will be happy again one day even if they think they can never be happy again. I wipe the tears from there cheeks and urge them to get up to eat dinner when they arrive crying and then fall into depression. I tell them not to worry about things that it is my job to worry to leave there worries up to me. I tell them it is my job to take care of them and that it is a good job. I tell them as i kiss there little bristled heads this is not a place for unwanted pigs, it is a place where all the best ones come.

I make them a home, i give them their own space , a house and a blanket and i introduce them to life here slowly sometimes by bringing them inside with me. They learn like us to be happy with what life is offering and what i offer is wide open spaces and freedom to race threw pastures and life when there is no hope. They adapt, and it is up to me to make sure that happiness continues and that they know i love them for the rest of there lives.

Pebbles is indeed happy here now as you can see after eating some hay she made her self a nest. But i want more for each and every one of them. I want what was taken from her so long ago and that life for those who never tasted it. Pigs are pets too.

The Seeds We Plant

Tuesday night was a booked appointment with a group of 4H kids visiting the Sanctuary. I had a really good time and they were more then generous and the pigs of course were awesome. One little girls big smile is remembered and it is no doubt when she went home she would be asking her Mom if she could have a pig.

One of the kids asked me how I taught the pigs the tricks they do. I told them unlike dogs who we are more accustomed to see spinning around, or shaking a paw i told them i simply talked to the pigs. That the pigs understand everything we say. The little girl looked at me with disbelief written all over her face. I had just opened the gate to let Winnie and Casanova out and the pigs were surrounded by the crowd. Casa had straw all over his face and i called out to him "Casa, shake it off" and within seconds of saying it Casanova did indeed shake the straw from his face. This was not a trick but the response of a sentient being who understands everything we are saying and then acknowledged it.

As a little girl growing up in the city the PNE every year's high light for me was the barns. I remember Mom talking about the girls sobbing over the cow they had named, brushed , loved and cared for would now be entering a ring to be priced and valued by the beef industry by its weight . They would never see there cherished pet again and one day they would in fact end up on someones plate.
This form of education really bothers me. That we teach the young to care for , name and love with the end result being betrayal , fear and then slaughter for the animals.

Mom and i attended a flea market out here and we came into the fair ground barns and i saw two rabbits in a cage who huddled as close together as they could. The sign above them had a price on there little heads if i remember it was 15.00 each. Saddened that these animals who clung to each other who's world went from some pen to cages surrounded by noise and confusion were now being marketed with out a care and i called out to one of the girls and said" how can you separate them they are bonded to each other"? Her reply was " oh ,they aren't' that bonded" .. she did not see because her education lacked in this regard. I felt bad for the rabbits and I shook my head in disappointment as this is what the 4h is teaching these kids. Or rather , not teaching them. Of course i am generalizing here as there are exceptions to the rule and the club that visited just may be one of them.

Love is a powerful thing and if we are teaching kids to care for , name and love an animal and then it is okay to sell for profit, breed or slaughter how does this cross over to relationships they will have with there counterparts one day ?

The picture is from a friend in the States who also does rescue. It is one taken just after the hatch on her truck opened mysteriously
and then was closed by her. The pigs responsible for its opening are standing by.