Sometimes even the most awful circumstances bring blessings. Meet Percival. Last week, EARTH got a call from one of the missing flyers we had posted about Oswald. A very kind man told us that he had recently purchased a small farmstead about forty minutes away from our sanctuary, and that when the previous tenant moved out, they abandoned a pig on the property. He said his sister had seen our flyer, and he wasnt sure if it was our pig, but that we were welcome to come and look. If not, since he didnt know what else to do with him, he was planning to send the pig to auction that week. We drove over immediately, and our disappointment to find that this pig was not in fact our Oswald was short-lived and replaced by sadness upon seeing the living conditions of this other pig. No food. No shelter. Only a mud puddle filled with green algae-filled rainwater for water. We spoke to a neighbor who happened to be outside, and found out that the pig had been left outside all winter long with only a small lean-to shack to protect him against the elements. His foot had gotten frozen in the ice, and several times the neighbor found him completely covered in snow and shivering. He had been given no food nor water and was surviving only on the bit of green grass in his pen. The neighbor would occasionally go over there with bags of corn to give him some food over the winter, just because he felt sorry for him. Given all these circumstances, including the long bouts of subzero weather this part of the country had experienced, its truly a miracle he survived at all. Knowing that this pig would be fated to be sold for meat in just a few days without ever having known a solid roof over his head, a loving touch, a warm bed or a good meal... there was no way we could possibly leave him there. So, we took him home.
Posted on: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 02:07:51 +0000