Rescue & Adoptions

2007 Featured Rescues

Petting Zoo Refugee Finds Home at California Shelter

At first, Linus didn't know what to make of it. The 4-month-old piglet watched as water from the garden hose pooled on the packed dirt in front of him.

After a few tentative sniffs, the lightbulb went on. The little guy belly flopped into the mud, rolling around enthusiastically and grunting.

Linus had just been introduced to his first mud hole.

The piglet had spent his first months as part of a petting zoo at a children's camp in California. He was kept in a concrete pen, denied access to pasture and that perennial pig favorite, mud holes.

Cuddled and made over by the children, Linus grew accustomed to human attention. However, once the end of the summer came and the kids left, Linus was headed back to where he came from: a pig farm-where he'd eventually be shipped off to slaughter.

This is not an uncommon fate for animals used at petting zoos. The facilities often breed animals, or borrow baby animals from farms, as in this case, to keep a steady supply of youngsters on hand for visitors to pet and bottle feed. Once these baby animals outgrow their utility, they are sent to slaughter.

Lucky for Linus, his stint as a plaything served to spare him from the fast track to the kill floor.

His situation drew the attention of Lee Martin, a caring individual who couldn't stand by and let Linus die. Martin worked tirelessly to find a home for the youngster, and his heart-wrenching plight was circulated by email from one animal lover to the next. Martin's plea reached Farm Sanctuary, and our California Shelter prepared to welcome the new piglet.

Now, the sweet piglet is in need of loving sponsors to provide for his daily care - including pig feed, straw bedding, and ongoing veterinary care with an incoming assessment and treatment for mange and conjunctivitis (which he contracted while at the petting zoo) first on the list!

With your sponsorship support, the disregard the piglet experienced in his first few months of life will be all but forgotten as he grows older. Please, call 607-583-2225 ext. 225 or click here, to sponsor Linus today through Farm Sanctuary's Adopt-A-Farm Animal Project and help to provide him the loving care every pig deserves - and a life safe from harm, forever.

Thankfully, Linus is on the road to recovery-not the slaughterhouse. Although things have changed for the lucky little guy, one thing remains the same: he's still the center of human attention, basking in the doting care from our shelter staff and kind volunteers like Martin.