Your pig stories

We ASKED OUR NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBERS FOR THEIR PIG STORIES.

Here are some of the responses we received. If you’d like to receive our newsletter you can sign up below.

Your Stories

Spotty the pig

My pig is called Spotty.  She was adopted for me as a birthday present last weekend. Spotty is a supermum! She’s had two of her own piglets and fostered seven others. I love her to bits and she will NEVER be bacon…Julie

PIGLET

Piglet in Winnie the Pooh is my favourite pig as he is clever but mostly believes that others are more able than him, so could be called a modest pig. He is also kind to his friends which is a wonderful attribute and a great example to his readers. Best wishes for World Pig Week…Tina

Wilbur from Charlottes Web

My name is Sarah and I’ve been vegetarian since I was 7 years old and I’m 43 now. I always remember the first time I thought about becoming vegetarian. It was 1987 and throughout my childhood my family always ate meat, whether it was Mum making spaghetti bolognaise at home or eating mince and tatties with my Scottish gran.

But one evening Mum gave me spaghetti bolognaise and I just couldn’t face eating it. I cant’ remember if I’d heard something in school or not but I just couldn’t eat dead animal and got down from the table and played my piano.  Mum asked me if I wanted to be vegetarian.  I didn’t know what it meant but I nodded…

Talking about pigs makes me think about reading the book Charlotte’s Web in school and maybe that’s what inspired me to become vegetarian…Sarah 

Closed doors

When I was 9 years old, my best friend knew someone who worked in a slaughter house in our local village. We went inside and saw an adult pig that had just given birth with about 6-8 piglets suckling on their Mother. We also noticed a closed door with a sign saying something like “No Unauthorised Access”. He firmly told us he needed to go back to work and that we were not allowed to go any further. We heard a pig squealing loudly and sounding in distress, then there was this deadly silence. Me and my friend looked at each other and quietly left the building. We never wanted to visit the slaughterhouse ever again. 10 years later, when I was 19, I read an article in a Sunday magazine that my parents got free with their newspaper, about Linda McCartney and how she and Paul become vegetarian in the late 1960’s and that she was bringing meat-free meals out that have the taste, texture and look of meat, such as burgers, sausages and (my favourite) lasagne. I then became a vegetarian myself. I was inspired to become vegetarian by Linda McCartney and I have been a vegetarian ever since…Paul

City farm piglets

I live near Leicester in the East Midlands, and many years ago, when my daughter was about seven or eight (she is a middle-aged adult now) we decided to visit the Leicester City Farm and dragged Dad along as well. As we left the stable area and strolled on down the main walkway, suddenly, completely out of nowhere, ran a stream of tiny piglets, about a dozen or more in a long line, all pink and black and squealing their heads off, dashing at thirty miles an hour in between all the people’s feet.  They were running completely freely, seemingly having the time of their lives, and could they move! ..leaving all we humans stumbling about to avoid treading on them and squealing with delight ourselves.  A little later in the afternoon, the same thing happened again with a different set of pigs, black and cream ones this time I think, just careering through the visitors and causing chaos.  They were the most charming little creatures, and clearly so healthy and happy and I’ve never forgotten that delightful visit because of them. A few years later, first my husband, then the rest of us decided to stop eating meat, red meat first, then all meat and then fish. We travelled this road, not for our health, but because we didn’t want to eat animals and who knows to what extent those little piglets influenced our decisions to give up meat and so much more…Chris

MISS PIGGY, OUR VIPIGGY

My vote HAS to go to my own, dear, grumpy old, stubborn old, massively wrinkly, blind pig. Miss Piggy. Our VIPiggy.

Living where we do, in N.E. Thailand, not only does meat feature massively, but a lot of it is DIY slaughter and preparation. That, and the fact that people never have animals unless they are for food, or money – or both, means that Our Girl is a very unusual case around here, and our reasoning for keeping her is very much misunderstood. I get away with it, because as foreigners we are considered weird anyway; my husband, however, being local, has had to adapt hugely.

Miss Piggy is a combination of Large Black (introduced into this country as a present from China to the royals here) and a wild pig. We have no idea as to her lineage other than that. She was the only piglet left after my husband’s father had sold the rest of the litter he had bought. She had such character that my husband suggested we keep her and breed from her, rescue her from inevitable fate.

Her face has become like a geographical feature, it is so thick-skinned, in ridges that have long since hidden her eyes, and yet her big, squishy pot belly is of the silkiest skin. She stands as high as my thigh, and my outstretched arm span reaches from the point where her ear joins her head, to the start of her tail on her rump. When she was younger, she weighed in at over 250kg, but these days, as with aging humans, she has become thinner and lighter – but still with that beautiful belly, and a frill of saggy nipples.

Our relationship has become an incredible cross-the-species example of a mother-teenage daughter one. She knows what buttons to push, is fantastically stubborn, but knows exactly what my mood is, especially with her. Apologies from her are as clear to understand as dissatisfaction or appreciation. Who knew that the singular word “oof” (pigs here don’t say “oink”) could have so many sound variations, depending on meaning. I am happy to say that conversely, she not only understands my own “oof”s, but English, too. 

Now she is old for her breed, but we care for her as best we can, after all, you would not think of doing otherwise if it was your own bedridden-grandmother, would you? Her true character is almost indescribable, as it is how she is, not what she can or can’t do, that makes her so special to us. And yes. She is still the boss around here. From Miss Piggy’s servant…Clare.

Penny the piglet

When I was a child, my sister and I would stay with our grandparents. My grandmother knew someone who worked on a pig farm.  While we were staying there one Easter, he brought a piglet round. It was a runt of a litter and would not have survived so he had rescued it and we spent the holiday bottle feeding it. 

We called it Percy. My father came down to take us back home and announced that Percy was actually Penny. We were very young so could be forgiven for making the mistake but I have never understood why neither of my grandparents or the pig rescuer had said anything. 

Summer came and we were back. Penny was brilliant, always ready for a walk down the road. She would come when she was called and behaved impeccably even when she came indoors. She now had a pen in the garden because she had grown too large for the small house my grandparents lived in. 

We eventually went back to school and Penny met an untimely end.  It was my first step towards being a vegetarian, first no pork, then no red meat, then no meat, eggs or milk and finally no fish…Pat.

SHOW GROUND pig

When I was 8 years old ( I am now 55! ) I had a friend in Hurst in Berkshire who had pedigree Berkshire pigs. They were huge black pigs with a lot of character. One was called Honky Tonk. He roamed around the garden. One day I was asked if I wanted to help ‘show’ him pig at the local agricultural fair. I dressed up in a white coat, was given a board and a stick and paraded him around the arena. I came home with a rosette. I have always loved pigs. They are very clean and very intelligent beasts…Lucinda

Head to our World Pig Week page to meet Betty, Harry Trotter, Eric and Porthos, and other lucky pigs who have been rescued by sanctuaries. You’ll also find some piggy facts, pig-free recipes, and veggie and vegan products.