A Southern California animal shelter took in a stray mama pig, along with her “boyfriend” and piglets. No one claimed the pigs and the shelter planned to auction them off to the highest bidder. Another sanctuary worked with Animal Place and other rescues to ensure that did not happen – the fate of auctioned pigs is rarely good.

While none of the rescues could intake an entire family of pigs, all of us could help with 2 pigs each. Separating a family is never ideal but, in this case, it is a far better outcome than slaughter. Winston and Stewart are the two piglets we took in and today they are thriving.

Winston is mostly all black, with white socks. His brother, Stewart, is black and white. These boys are not as large as our full-sized farm-breed pigs but they certainly think they are! They love belly rubs and cuddling with each other.