This great big pig (the one on the right! ) is Gandalf

He is huge! A few metres long and over a metre in height.

He's one of the #53pigs entire boars.

He was rescued from an illegal slaughterhouse in Wales.

Where he was starved and treated brutally.

To survive.....

To survive he ate the entrails of others, cannibalised, ate bits of cars...all to stay alive! (he's in the picture below, can you see him?)

The slaughterhouse was raided by authorities, all of the animals removed. But the #53pigs were taken to a Defra Isolation Unit....

They were instantly condemned, a court order was served on them.

The order was a destruction order. They were a 'public health' risk, unfit for human consumption. They were labled as diseased due to eating other beings, causing a zoonotic disease...TSE, a swine version of BSE

But we didn't think that was fair. Their life only of value if they could be consumed! Surely they had been through enough at the hands of humans!

So we hired a solicitor with the help of #vegantwitter. And for 7 months we fought for them, for Gandalf.

We were ordered to...

Complete a pig keeping course by Defra (amongst many other things!)
By an expert, we did our course, we were advised not take the entire (non castrated males) We were told they would be too dangerous to handle, they would be aggressive and a danger to us.

This is Gandalf now

We decided, if we were going to do it...we would leave no one behind.

We ignored the expert!

We took the 13 uncastrated boars.

Gandalf was one of them.

He is big! Cuddly, fun and loving!

It's just me now. The other people involved in their rescue with me, walked away.

The reality of looking after & funding the care of 91 pigs was not as glamorous as they had hoped.

So I needed help!

We built a barn!

But now we need security and stability to make sure they have feed.

Then the #Pigoneers were born!

Please join us!
https://globalvegancrowdfunder.org/pigoneer-2000-club/