Woman adopts piglet from slaughter house

“The farmers shackle the hind legs if they want to pick up or transport pigs — hearing their heart-breaking screams strengthened my determination to give at least one of them a good home,” said the animal lover who runs a cage-free dog boarding kennel in Red Hills.

She chose three-month-old Sheldon based on the advice of a veterinarian, as he was older than the rest of the lot and his immunity would be better. Keerthi, who already has 18 adopted dogs, introduced the newest member to the pack on Saturday.

“There are quite a few pork retailers around where I live. All the animals are kept until they weigh 50-60 kg and are subsequently sold off to slaughterhouses for meat. We visited one such place and paid Rs 6,000 because they were not willing to part with the piglet for free,” recalled Keerthi. Pigs are animals of prey, so they are naturally fearful of human beings. “Sheldon is even more terrified because he was raised in the worst conditions for the first three months of his life,” she said.

Keerthi explained that she would like to help Sheldon overcome his fear of people by giving him some basic training and behaviour exercises, such as walking on a leash, eating out of a bowl, allowing people to pet him and so on. Since his arrival in his new home, the piglet has adapted to sleeping on a bed, lets people stroke him gently and his favourite foods so far are chicken, boiled vegetables and rice. When he reaches full growth, he is expected to weigh anywhere between 200-250 kgs.

Sad state of affairs for pigs

Research shows that pigs are the fourth most intelligent animals after chimpanzees, dolphins and elephants. People aren’t actively adopting them due to lack of space in cities and stigmas. “During the Swine Flu outbreak, people were smashing piglets to their deaths. We happened to rescue six of them and bring them to our shelter,” said Dawn William, the manager of Blue Cross of India, which currently houses 40 adult pigs. “People come forth to sponsor or adopt dogs, cats and cows but nobody cares about the pigs,” he said.