Mother Pig and Piglets Rescued From Slaughter Jump For Joy On Experiencing ‘The Outside’ for the First Time

Hope Apple Blossom and her six piglets had forgotten what it was like to be outside, to look up at the blue sky, and to brush their paws on soft green grass. They were destined for slaughter. For months, they lay in desolation on beds of straw, captives inside the pen of a slaughterhouse. Lucky for them the pig farm was going out of business. In February 2017, Juliet Gellatley, Founder and Director at Viva! The Vegan Charity in the UK, arrived at the pig farm along with some employees at Dean Farm Animal Sanctuary to rescue Hope and her babies. In March 2017, Viva! posted a YouTube video capturing the joy of Hope and her piglets as they tasted freedom for the first time in their life.

The short clip displays Hope bounding, leaping, and galloping exuberantly in a field of green grass in the Welsh countryside. Her piglets hop around, squirming and gleefully romping around their mother’s body, and relishing their new life of freedom. Fast forward to today, the pig family is healing in the animal sanctuary. The piglets have almost tripled in size, having been weaned by their mother’s milk, as updated by Dean Farm Trust. They are now exploring new foods including bananas, apples, and carrot treats. Hope, however, is still a bit cautious and protective, given the trauma she experienced after her first litter of piglets was separated from her.

Hope and her piglets were lucky, but not every pig has the same destiny. The video description states that “Whilst this Mum and her piglets are safe, most pigs in Britain are still factory farmed and sent to slaughter.” According to data from the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), nearly 3.8 million pigs are slaughtered each day. It’s not just the end-of-life suffering they go through. The animals often have to endure dismal conditions inside the farm such as cramped, stressful conditions that lead them to live in chronic discomfort and depression. Viva! UK urged people, “The best thing you can do to end the suffering of animals is to simply stop eating them.”

Recalling her rescuing experience, Gellatley said when she was filming the campaign, she saw much cruelty and neglect. “One of the overriding feelings I came away with was that I felt terrible that I couldn’t rescue them all,” she described, “But I was determined to find a way of rescuing at least some pigs. I hope this mother and her babies can represent the millions of their brothers and sisters who are still on factory farms. Hopefully through seeing them, and how wonderful they are, people will give up meat. Because, of course, the only way to truly rescue animals is to stop eating them.”

According to FAO, pigs are the second most widely eaten animals in the world and about a third of the world’s population is consuming pig meat. While these intelligent creatures long to be unshackled from the chains, once they come in contact with humans, they are mercilessly slathered for slabs of meat, and perhaps, even milk. They don’t know what freedom tastes like. Freedom is a wonderful thing. And thanks to Gellatley and her colleagues, Hope and her six piglets finally know what it is.