Pigs Can Be Pets, Too
Any animal lover knows that pets come in all shapes and sizes and are appreciated as such. Lord knows I have had my share of pets since childhood and they weren’t always the norm.
After receiving an email about a couple’s pet pig being slaughtered for “no good reason,” I was compelled to write about it. Andy Warthog (pictured above) was shot, left for dead, and found by his owners Joe and Missie Robbins Moore of Monticello not long after.
The news made it to Traci Key, an administrator for the Eastern Snouts Adoption and Rehoming, a networking group of people that come together to help place pigs in need in a safe environment.
Traci was the voice for the Moores as they began grieving horribly over their loss. The couple is offering a reward for any information that leads to who shot Andy. Eastern Snouts is also putting together a Justice for Andy campaign to help raise awareness. This campaign can be found on the organization’s Facebook page.
So what actually happened to Andy? He was outside his home enjoying some sunshine, in one of his many outfits so as not to mistake him for a pig in the wild. Andy wondered too far likely, and in the small amount of time he went missing was shot.
Traci thought that many may not find Andy’s loss newsworthy but to his family and the Eastern Snouts someone had killed a beloved pet senselessly.
“Please I know that many don’t consider this a pet but if you spent even a little time with a pet pig and their family you would quickly understand that they are emotional loving beings that don’t deserve what happened to Andy,” she said.
Andy was the second rescue pig for the Moores who had raised him for four years.
“Andy was our second rescue in February 2018. He had been left in a crate only big enough for a chicken during one of the coldest winters we had in some time,” noted Joe. “People had moved from a rental house and left him in that crate in the back yard, no food or water. After a week or so someone found him and managed to get him to some people who rescue cats. They had no idea what to do with a pig so somehow they found us on Facebook.”
He continued, “Andy pretty much bonded with me. That boy would shiver 24 hours a day and crave water and companionship. He slept between me and Missie every day. He wouldn’t hurt anything. In all probability Andy walked up to his killer with a smile wagging his tail.”
The Andy story likely resonated with me when I read the email because as an animal lover I too had a pet pig as a child. It was a gift from my grandfather Sidney not long before he passed away. I loved that pig, who we treated as a pet, before it became an adult size boar and we had to be a bit more careful.
My dad would make my brother and I feed it daily and we would often play a game of “jump in & out the pen quick as you can.” Like Andy, it too was slaughtered after breaking out his pen one night and wondering away. My dad discovered the hunters who shot our beloved pig and we received an apology. Maybe the same can be done for Andy!
