4C
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JULY 31, 2015
PARTING SHOT
A weekly snapshot from The Daily Astorian and Chinook Observer photographers
A June morning on the beach in Seaside.
Linh DePledge/For The Daily Astorian
ODDITY
Pet porkers pack rescues as trendy teacup pigs fatten up
Mostly fat
‘Either the pig
goes or I go,’ one
husband says
By SUE MANNING
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Eva
Monroy bought a mini pig for
her family and fed it what the
breeder instructed: a half-cup of
food in the morning and a half-
cup at night.
But the piglet named Ham-
mond started raiding the pantry
and digging through the trash. A
veterinarian told Monroy that he
was behaving badly because he
was starving.
The breeder promised the
diet would keep him a mere
12 inches tall. But when Ham-
mond grew to 20 inches and
180 pounds, “my husband
couldn’t handle it any more.
‘Either the pig goes or I go,”’
Monroy, of El Monte, Calif.,
says he told her.
So she took the animal to
Lil’ Orphan Hammies, a rescue
about 130 miles northwest of
Los Angeles.
It’s a common story play-
ing out nationwide, leaving
thousands of pet pigs home-
less and rescues packed. The
crunch has led many sanctu-
aries to limit how many pigs
they will accept or stop taking
them completely.
The craze for tiny pet pigs
started decades ago and gets
reignited every few years. On-
line sellers offer teacup pigs for
thousands of dollars, promising
the animals will stop growing
after age 1 and stay small if fed a
restricted diet.
Will starve
But the tiny pigs keep
growing until age 4 and will
starve if they aren’t fed proper-
FREE
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January 2015
Lenny Ignelzi/AP Photo
A belly rub gets started in the front yard of the Grazin’ Pig Acres rescue ranch by its owners, Nancy and Marty Koontz,
and several of the 98 pigs living on the ranch in Ramona, Calif. The craze for tiny pet pigs started decades ago and gets
reignited every few years. Once they grow too big to handle, people give them up.
ly with potbellied-pig food or
a blend of vegetables, animal
groups say. Once they grow
too big to handle, people give
them up.
“There are not enough
homes out there anymore. These
pigs are in big trouble,” said Sue
Parkinson of Lil’ Orphan Ham-
mies in Solvang, which took in
Monroy’s porker and others no
one else would.
Parkinson, who has saved
1,000 pigs since founding the
rescue 23 years ago, says she
gets 20 calls a day from people
trying to get rid of their pigs.
Same goes for Nancy Koontz
and her husband at Grazin’ Pig
Acres in Ramona, 40 miles
ess
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Lenny Ignelzi/AP Photo
A pot-bellied pig strolls past the florist shop in his enclo-
sure at the Grazin’ Pig Acres rescue ranch.
northeast of San Diego.
“We absolutely fell in love
with the potbellied pig. But we
can’t take more because we
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don’t have the time, money or
help,” she said.
Anna Key, vice president of
the North American Potbellied
Pig Association, estimated that
90 percent of pigs adopted in the
U.S. are later taken to a rescue or
sanctuary.
Complicating things is their
care: Some veterinarians won’t
treat them because they con-
sider them farm animals. Many
cities and counties do not allow
pigs on property not zoned for
livestock, but that doesn’t stop
many pet owners.
As pets, people get potbel-
lied pigs, which are a fraction
the size of commercial pigs.
They typically weigh between
100 pounds and 120 pounds,
while farm pigs bred for slaugh-
ter often weigh 1,000 to 1,200
pounds.
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Heartrending
decisions
When pigs grow larger than
expected, it can lead to heart-
rending decisions.
Holly Jasma ordered a
piglet costing $2,500 from
a breeder who promised it
would stay small. She had to
give it to a rescue when it grew
to 150 pounds.
“It was gut-wrenching —
pretty traumatic for me,” the
Seattle resident said.
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NEWS
BOAT OF THE MONTH
Tiny pet pigs purchased for
thousands of dollars aren’t a
typical food source, even when
they grow larger, because
they’re mostly fat with little
taste, experts said. However,
some are sold for slaughter or
raised for meat.
Breeders say pet pigs can
stay tiny because they’re learn-
ing to eat less, but rescues say
they’re emaciated and losing
muscle mass.
“I have never seen a full-
grown, healthy, 35-pound pig
live to maturity,” said Susan
Magidson, owner of Ross Mill
Farm in Jamison, Pa., north of
Philadelphia. It’s one of busi-
est rescues in the country, with
250 pigs and services such as
grooming, massage and acu-
puncture.
Breeder Patty Morrisroe
of Dallas, in Oregon, says her
smallest pigs weigh 15 to 50
pounds for life by eating spe-
cially made feed. She says that
her pigs stop growing after
one year but that feeding them
potbellied-pig food and letting
them nibble on grass fattens
them up.
“Regular potbellied pig
chow is not compatible with
this extremely small breed,”
she said of the food recom-
mended by animal-welfare
groups.