Early in May of 2001 I heard from a fellow pig rescue that a major cruelty case was reported in Shelbyville Tennessee involving hundreds of animals, among them one pot bellied pig. I started trying to get details and the confusion surrounding the whole case was so great that no one was exactly sure how many pigs were involved or what kind of pigs they were.  Eventually I got asked in by the Humane Society to view the pigs and make an asessment of their conditioin.     I and three others went there on May 23 prepared to remove the pigs if allowed. It was not to be. After writing up my report the Humane Society Administrator agreed that the pigs needed to be removed from the place.
    On June 1 we spent 5 hours in the mud collecting up not one, but 13 pigs in deplorable conditions. At one point, dripping with mud and other unidentifiable bits,  I turned to Kay ( Humane Society) and asked her where we were going to eat dinner that night..she laughingly replied, we can drop by the Country Club! That little bit of humor helped me endure the horrors of the day.
Pigs starved  to the point they could barely get up, pigs with tusks grown through their lips into their mouths and jaws, lice, distended bellies from malnutrition and worms.......
    We brought them to the sanctuary and fed them until they were full. The next day we vaccinated and treated all the various problems, cut the tusks and feet and put these unfortunates into a condition to begin recovery.
    Of all who touched me with their hardship, none did so more than George, an old male with tusks that had grown 3 1/2 inches into his mouth and jaw. The day I saw him in Shelbyville for the first time he was trying to eat some of the food the Humane Society had brought and it hurt him so bad to move his mouth  he just let the food fall out of his mouth and to the ground and went and layed down. It was all I could do not to grab him and run. To leave him there, not knowing if we would be able to get him released, knowing after a few more months of agonizing pain he would be dead.
    But on June 2 his tusk was removed from his jaw, he was medicated and put on antibiotics; on June 3 he tenderly ate his food, on June 4 he wolfed down his meal with a big smile on his face and looked up at me with glory in his eyes.
    Welcome home George!


Below are

a few pictures of their homecoming to the Sanctuary after their were vaccinated and turned out



Alice finds plenty of grass here

Oscar and Spanky find mud


Ivy stops under a rosebush while touring her new pasture.

Norma Jean explores the woods and meets the old cow Jeannie

Alice after 2 months of Rehab care