The owner of a petting zoo goes to buy a pig from a farmer. The farmer throws in the injured sibling, whose leg is hurt. The piglet won’t put weight on it and limps on the other three legs. The guy figures he’s buying the pig some time and maybe the leg will get better.
Three weeks later, at a farmer’s market, I noticed a petting zoo with farm animals and saw that one of the animals in a pen by itself was a baby pig. He was the size of a medium dog, about 30 pounds. I went to pet him and realized that he couldn’t walk on his left front leg. I asked the girl working there what was wrong with the leg. She explained, “It’s a rescue and he came that way.” I asked if he had been seen by a veterinarian, and when she responded in the negative, I asked if he was going to be seen by a veterinarian. The answer was no. Then I asked whether they would be checking out anyone who wanted to adopt the pig and was told that he was for sale for $50. “So it’s not a rescue, and anyone can buy him. Even if they just want him for bacon?” I asked. She replied in the affirmative.
I couldn’t take my eyes off of the piglet. He lay down most of the time probably because walking on three legs was too painful. He was in the bright sun and it was quite warm out. There was no shade to protect his delicate skin and when she brought him water in a dog bowl, he couldn’t quite get low enough to drink because he couldn’t brace himself on his only front leg. The water bowl kept spilling over, and the teenager in charge laughed as she explained that he did that every time she gave him water. She didn’t seem to understand that he couldn’t drink from it, that he wasn’t doing it on purpose and a bucket might have been a better option.
Apparently my less than tactful comments had her running to the guy in charge of the farmer’s market where the event was taking place. He was furious. I was told in no uncertain terms to stop talking about the injured piglet while I was on the premises. I began calling everyone I know in animal rescue to try to get a plan in place to help the piglet. I called local pig rescues, I called anyone I knew who had a farm (not very many people). We had someone identify the pig as a farm pig, not a potbelly pig, which means that full grown, the pig could be 800 – 1000 pounds. That’s a BIG pig! Someone suggested I call the Hoofed Animal Humane Society (HAHS) in Woodstock, so I left a message with them regarding the piglet. Someone very involved in rescue told me to be sure to get video, and I did manage to get video of the pig limping, and I was able to send that to the HAHS and various pig sanctuaries. My friend Sarah, a fellow foster and animal lover, also got some video.
That night was stressful. Sarah and I were determined to rescue the pig, but it seemed that some rescues wanted us to guarantee all the medical costs and said they could be as high as $5,000. That we weren’t prepared for. Other rescues were thrilled at the amount we said we could donate, and they said they would cover the rest. One we called, Kanda Farm Sanctuary, said they would take him and that they would contribute to the medical bills. Then we got a call from Peak Animal Sanctuary, and they told me that Kanda Farm Sanctuary had called them to see if they would take piglet. They agreed to take him! To add to wonderful news, Chicagoland Pig Rescue called Sarah back and said that they would help with everything and that the final destination of the pig would be Peak Animal Sanctuary.
The plan seemed to be in place. We just needed to talk to the owner of the petting zoo where the piglet was located to work it out. When my co-rescuer Sarah heard back from him in a voice message, he said that he’d be happy to have the pig rescued. But then he didn’t return her calls or texts. On Monday, Sarah was in the general area where the farm was located. She decided to stop by and see if she could just get the pig. The gate was shut and no one seemed to be around. But Sarah didn’t give up. She saw a house next door to the farm and went there and knocked on the door. No one answered so she went to a different door and knocked. No one seemed to be home. But then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a woman heading to the back of the property on a golf cart. Yelling and waving her arms, Sarah ran toward the woman to get her attention. Success. The woman directed her to her son, the owner, who was able to help Sarah get the piglet into a crate and into her car.
He told Sarah that he had bought the pig’s brother and the farmer gave him the injured pig as well. He was hoping that the leg would get better, but after three weeks, the pig still hadn’t put any weight on the leg. He seemed happy that we were taking the pig off his hands. Probably getting a call from the Hoofed Animal Humane Society helped overcome any reluctance to give up the pig instead of selling it for $50.
While Chicagoland Pig Rescue had said the pig would go to the large animal veterinary hospital at the University of Illinois, Peak Rescue directed us to head to Perdue to their large animal hospital. Both destinations were about three hours away. Sarah came to get me, I brought out some apple slices and carrots to give the piglet and put them in his crate, and we were off.
Amazingly, the piglet (who we temporarily named of Rickie the Red) was quiet for the whole trip. He was a good little boy; maybe he sensed that good things were in store for him. We stopped once so Sarah could walk her foster puppy who had accompanied us on the trip, but we made good time and pulled into the building where Rickie would get his medical care. Almost as soon as we opened the back door of the SUV, a veterinarian wandered up from another building and gave Rickie a very preliminary and quick examination of the leg (while the crate was still in the car) said that it did seem the leg was broken, and the leg was thickened at the break. The medical staff at the large animal hospital were all very welcoming, and after checking in at reception, it went quickly.
They were expecting us thanks to the prep work done by Maria and Rayann at Peak, and soon Rickie was whisked away into a commodious stall with fresh hay. We got to visit him and say goodbye, They estimated his age at six to eight weeks of age. He’s just a baby!!
We heard from both Rayann and Maria with an update from the veterinarian. The arm was infected and they were going to do a culture to make sure they got the right antibiotics. The next day he was scheduled for a CT scan to see the extent of the break. We needed to be patient and be happy with the knowledge that Rickie was somewhere safe where he would get the best medical care.
Wednesday, after the CT scan, we heard from Peak. The break was extensive and there were bone fragments throughout the upper arm. Discussion was had about the different possibilities of treatment. The most obvious, and one that would probably have been done on a dog or cat, was amputation. But pigs, especially farm pigs who are bred to grow quickly and top out at 800 to 1,000 pounds, don’t have joints that do well with that weight, even with all four limbs intact. As one of the Peak people told me, “Pigs aren’t bred to live long lives.” They are separated from their mother at 3-4 weeks of age, fattened up, and then slaughtered. So farm pigs have a life expectancy of 10 years, which is almost a decade longer than most of them get to live. But with three limbs, after only a year or two, Rickie would be unable to walk on his three legs and carrying and transporting an animal of that size isn’t possible.
So the other option is to operate on the leg and put a metal plate on the break. Eventually, the bone grows with the plate stabilizing the break, and the limb heals somewhat. I am familiar with that operation as my rescue Chloe, a dog from China, came with a leg that had been broken years before. She had the surgery and got the plate over her old break and it helped for several years until, from all her running in the back yard, the plate broke and had to be removed. Chloe loved nothing more than running and running in our large fenced yard, something she wasn’t able to do in China in the small concrete area where she was confined. What happened to her metal plate is also a possibility with farm animals, that at some point the plate would need to be removed. There is also the risk of infections in the future.
The women at Peak spent much of the day calling other farm rescues and asking about their experiences with animals in this situation. One rescue said that amputation with prosthetics doesn’t work well. Others shared their experiences. One person we spoke to speculated that the piglet had inadvertently been stepped on my his mother. There are many babies around and sometimes that happens. But when a baby is injured, the farmers don’t get treatment but let them suffer until they die or are killed. This piglet was luckier than most. When the owner of the petting zoo went to purchase one piglet for his zoo, the farmer threw in the injured piglet. “I hoped the leg would get better,” the owner commented. The folks at Peak would like the guy who took Rickie in to be thanked. If he had not taken Rickie, the piglet’s outcome would have been a slow, painful death at the farm or getting shot.
Right now, Rickie, who has been renamed Clifford, is back at Peak Animal Sanctuary, where he is on antibiotics and will have the surgery shortly. He is getting used to the other animals there, including Sally, the pot-bellied pig. He’s eating greens, meeting turkeys, getting water therapy, and living a better life than he’s known in the past three months. Yes, he’s only a three-month-old baby. But now he’s a happy baby and getting spoiled and making friends.
Clifford’s future is secure. But there is a huge cost. Instead of the $5,000 that one rescue originally estimated, the cost at Perdue, which is on the reasonable side for this type of procedure and also has some of the best surgeons for this type of surgery, will be closer to $10,000. There is the question about how much money should be spent on just one animal, and this is a valid discussion. But I know that I’ve spent that much on some of my dogs and one of my cats, and is Clifford deserving of less?
If you can donate, even if it’s just $5.00, please know that it will help and be extremely appreciated. Please share this article and our plea for donations on Clifford’s behalf. And please, if you see an animal in need, don’t look away. They have no voice, so we need to speak and advocate for them.
Pictures by Pamela Kramer and Peak Sanctuary; much thanks to Sarah, without whom this would not have happened.