In 2014, just after starting Tomten Farm and Sanctuary, I lost my first ever rescued pig, a beautiful and much loved Duroc named Petunia, The Biggest of the Piggest. She had been saved several years before Tomten officially began. The sadness I felt when she passed at age 8 was not unlike feelings I had when a favorite dog had departed this life. She was, as E.B. White might have described her, "some pig." She roamed, free-range on the farm, comfortably existing side-by-side with our other animals and welcoming all who visited.
For many, meeting Petunia was the first time they had ever met (let alone interacted with) a live pig. When she passed away, we knew the farm would not be the same without her and so, it was decided that we would rescue not one, but two lives in her honor. Everyone deserves a friend of their own species and two little piglets destined for slaughter could grow up in the companionship of one another and the shelter of Tomten Farm and Sanctuary. Friends, ambassadors and never, ever food.
I was not yet wise to the ways of livestock auction and so I made the both sad and joyful trip to save two meat piglets from the same longtime, local New England pig farmer who had sold us Petunia (a close-to-impulse purchase made when we realized she was at risk). I am pretty grateful to this man who allowed me to step up not once, but twice, who welcomed me to his farm, let me go in with his pigs and allowed us to save the lives of these two now ancient (in pig years) and beloved Berkshires. It was an eye-opening experience that forever changed my life and today, as I share the story of Mabel Consuela and Diego Montoya, I hope it touches you in ways that might surprise you. We are, after all, talking swine!
Like many small farmers, this gentleman took pride in his care of his pigs but they were not pets. It was business and each hog was raised for human consumption. In fact, his youngsters were the same ones that graced many local tables at pig roasts and summer cookouts. They were his livelihood and considered as such…an investment in lives destined for an early death and a dollar.
And, honestly, in retrospect I was, in fact unconsciously in cahoots with him although I hadn't realized it until that impactful day.
Back then I still ate meat. In hindsight, I am amazed that I could have cared for Petunia, loved her every day, admired her intelligence and charm and then consumed others of her own species. How was that possible??
I think that I, like many people, found it was easy to unconsciously compartmentalize things when you never actually see the individual lives that will be lost in person. We all learn to do better at our own pace, on our own timetable, for our own reasons.
Change is an individual process and thankfully, Mabel and Diego spurred me into overdrive. As we welcomed them to the newly founded, Tomten Farm and Sanctuary, I knew it was time to modify my thinking and my dietary and lifestyle habits.
There were lots of friendly, beautiful pigs on the farm. Some housed alone, some housed in pairs, many housed together and there were so many sows with piglets. How was I to pick just two? It was not a factory farm. These pigs were humanely raised and sheltered in clean facilities with fresh water, good food, and dry bedding. There was room to turn around and stretch and it was obvious the farmer enjoyed them. He stopped to scratch and pet many as we paused by their pens and they lifted their noses to visit. But, there were no enrichment toys, no pig pools, no melons, no sun on their backs or earth underfoot. There was no opportunity to root and run and each life I met lived in a small stall, destined for slaughter to become pork chops and bacon and ribs and roasts. Each life eventually got sold for meat and for all but the producing sows it was sooner than later. Most pigs do not live past 6 months of age or 225 pounds and knowing their lives were so very, very short made my heart ache.
Choosing two was incredibly hard. In fact, choosing who to save is always one of the hardest things in rescue and as anyone who does it will tell you, the real truth, the cold, hard truth, is that you are also choosing who will die. We do the same when we eat meat, although few realize it. It is always a decision that I take very seriously and amazingly, this farmer graciously allowed me to take my time making up my mind. It took me hours. I didn't want the really young ones who had not spent every moment possible with their mother yet, I needed them to still be small enough that I could handle them and close enough in age they would bond easily. I knew opposite genders would be the best mix but choosing raises constant questions. How could I take two from the sow with only four? How could I pick from the litter of 12? How could I say no to those ready to go who eagerly greeted me at the fence? How could I leave so many behind?
In the end I chose two from the same litter. Their Mom was social and had an entire litter still with her, there were 8. The piglets obviously knew one another, they were opposite genders and their Mom was so tolerant of me sitting in her pen, observing her litter of piglets as I would have a litter of puppies. But when our two were removed from the litter, taken from their mother, it did not in any way feel like a Save. Instead, it felt like a terrible wrongdoing, a kidnapping, and it changed my life forever. In fact, not only did their mother scream in anguish as we began the walk out of the barn with her two piglets—those we were to welcome to peace, protection and possibility—but so did every sow in the breeding barn. And it continued after we were gone. It was unlike anything I have ever heard in my life, each sow there, every Momma pig in the barn, experienced distress when the piglets were pulled and I suddenly realized that they spent years going through that experience over and over again, with every single litter as their piglets, their sons and daughters, were taken, one by one, until the end of their lives. What an incredibly sad existence.
I pride myself in my ability to be stoic, professional and pragmatic both during and after each Save but I had not been prepared for what I experienced that day. Usually, I am able to contain my emotions until the next day when the new additions are settled in. I have learned that I need to take that day after in order to allow time to grieve and process what I have learned and seen. But this day, in front of the farmer, I failed at keeping my feelings in check. My eyes filled as my heart hurt listening to those sad, sad cries. They were deafening. We tried to go back and save the Mom but he was not ready to let go of her quite yet and sadly, that Winter she passed of pneumonia but her memory lives on. We called her Penelope and you can see her photo and that of her litter below.
That April day, just months after starting Tomten Farm and Sanctuary with only a few rescued equines under my belt, I began my journey of giving up eating meat. Not just pork, but all meat. That day, I truly realized the impact of my choices and that day, I realized I had to do a better job and become a better me for all animals including those I would never meet face to face.
Today, Mabel Consuela and Diego Montoya live happily at Tomten Farm and Sanctuary. Unlike their long lost littermates, they feel the sun on their backs and the earth underfoot. They have toys and friends and they have tomorrow. They root, they wallow, and live together under the umbrella of peace, protection and possibility. They are almost eight years old now and have known nothing but kindness and love.
They are the exception but as they age and arthritis sets into legs too small, too short, and too weak to maintain the strain of their large bodies, their genetic engineering geared toward accommodating only six months of life takes its toll. We hide meds in their cookies and prepare ourselves for the time we will have to say goodbye. I cannot even think of it without tearing up, the loss of these pigs, our "wiggies" who forever changed my life. But for now, we celebrate today as they do every day and celebrate the simple gift of life at Tomten Farm and Sanctuary. May their presence have spurred many on the journey to kindness.
Thank you for being their difference. Your presence on their journey, on this journey, matters more than you know.
