Here is a "BEFORE" and an "AFTER" picture of one of the animals that came here to live. If you are the queasy type, the "before" picture may be upsetting....
Her name is Bunny, because we brought her home from the LaBelle rescue the day before Easter, last year. We did not think she would live the night and neither did anyone else. Our immediate goal was to make sure she knew someone cared about her before her life ended.
The way she had lived, for her entire life, was literally squalor. Food was whatever could be found. Bones from those gone before all over the property. Water from the draining of the sinks and toilets in the trailer into an above ground shallow hole on the property. Her fifty some brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers and who knows what other genetic disasters were there too. After all, it started with just two pigs and the "survivors" were the result of litter after inbred litter down the line over a couple of years or so.
There were people living there too. Older folks. In the same conditions. A puppy, several days dead, in the doorway. No running water, major filth, and with blood relatives in a nice house next door. An excellent example of how human beings can be to and about their OWN kind. One has to question where and upon what to spend their compassion, caring, and resources.
The "after" picture was taken yesterday (02/15/2003) and the difference should be obvious. Yes, it REALLY IS the SAME pig, hard as that may be to comprehend....and she knows someone cares about her life and the quality of it.
Our Dover story is much the same, as are the PooPig, Barbie, Wally, Leeza, Happy, Zipper, Amistad pigs, Brady Bunch pigs, and all the other pigs' stories.....
I'm sure every sanctuary and rescue organization has a hundred stories just like this. That is why it is so important to support these organizations, which are often actually just a few people, devoting their time and personal resources to obtain these kinds of results. They don't come free. And don't think the $5 that you personally, might be able to spare, isn't anything worthy of giving. Every $5 is one 50# bag of food (well, almost). More important than that, it is you doing your part to help the other animals for whom most humans show so little regard and compassion.