Rescue & Adoptions

2005 Featured Rescues

Two Piglets Rescued after Falling from Transport Trucks

Rudy and Truffles never met until after they were rescued and brought to live together for a short time at a foster home in Westfield, Indiana, yet their stories are virtually identical. Both were born and raised to be used for their meat; both were very young piglets — weighing 10 and 20 pounds — when they were loaded onto hot, crowded trucks and shipped off to "finishing" farms to be fattened for slaughter; both happened to fall out of the trucks they were being transported in.

Truffles fell out of a truck into heavy traffic on Interstate 69 in Indiana. A kind, courageous woman heading in the opposite direction saw Truffles fall and knew she had to save her. Not hesitating for even a second, she pulled her car onto the shoulder, hopped the median and managed to scoop the terrified piglet off the pavement before any cars could hit her. She carefully cradled the bruised and bloody piglet in her arms, crossed the median again, and placed her on a soft blanket in the back seat of her car. Then, as a very relieved little Truffles fell quickly to sleep on the blanket, the woman contacted Farm Sanctuary member, Diane Evans, who agreed to foster the piglet until she could be transported to our New York Shelter.

Rudy was also rescued in Indiana. He was found wandering around a truck stop off Interstate 74 shortly after a truck full of piglets pulled out of the parking lot. Thankfully, another truck driver spotted Rudy and brought the youngster to the Hendricks County Animal Shelter. But Rudy wasn't out of danger yet. A few days after he arrived at the shelter, animal control officers made plans to give Rudy to a farmer who lived nearby and planned to raise him for food. Hearing of Rudy's plight on a television news report, Farm Sanctuary members intervened, and when the farmer missed the deadline to pick up the piglet, Rudy too was brought to Diane Evans' home, where he met Truffles for the first time.

By the time Rudy and Truffles made the trip up to Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, they had already bonded. Now the two are inseparable. They have also become good friends with another rescued pig named Terrin. Every day the three pigs play together in their mud holes, nap in clean, warm straw and wiggle excitedly at the sight of our sanctuary cattle grazing in a nearby pasture. Watching them, we can't help but feel happy and thankful.

Sadly, countless millions of pigs just like Rudy and Truffles will never be given the chance to feel mud under their hooves or the cool breeze on their backs, and we grieve deeply for them. But for these two lucky souls who once shared the most horrific of fates, there will be a happy ending. They will now share the happiest of lives together.