A butcher with a heart
Slaughtering the pigs was out of the question for him
It was not the first time that a butcher had contacted Gut Aiderbichl’s animal emergency centre and asked for five pigs to be taken in urgently.
He was asked to slaughter the three Kune-Kune pigs Hugo, Rosalie and Picasso, as well as the mini pigs Pepe and Greta, who are still babies by the way. Hugo, Rosalie and Picasso are beautiful Kune Kune pigs and belong to the wonderful breed that originated in New Zealand. The butcher didn’t have the heart for it. And somehow this butcher with a heart seems to be a “repeat offender” when it comes to saving pigs.
Boar Nitty Gritty danced for his life when the butcher opened the stable door
Thirteen years ago, he contacted us because he didn’t want to kill the miniature pig Nitty Gritty. Its owners had brought the pig to him for slaughter because they no longer wanted it.
Had a pig
The story of the little boar is incredible. On the morning Nitty Gritty was due to die, the butcher found him cowering in fear in the death box. When Nitty Gritty saw the butcher, he instinctively did what his previous owner had taught him: he began to dance upright in a circle and thus reached the heart of the gripped butcher. A happy ending followed for the boar, as it did for the five other pigs. This should make us humans rethink.
From lucky charm to butcher
Why do people keep pigs? Why give pigs away? Why do people simply take the animals to the slaughterhouse when they no longer want to keep them? Have people with this kind of behaviour ever thought about the pig as a living being?
The butcher said in the email “We sincerely ask for your help and support…”
The Gut Aiderbichl Animal Emergency Centre immediately received Dieter Ehrengruber’s confirmation, and the Aiderbichl animal rescuers set off in a van to collect the pigs from the butcher. With friendly grunts and bright eyes, the pigs marched onto the transporter and off they went to the pig palace at Gut Aiderbichl in Henndorf.
About three million pigs are kept in Austria. Pigs are more than just a source of meat. How do they think? How do they organise their social environment and how do they learn? These are the main questions that a study team from the Messerli Research Institute has been investigating since 2014 together with a herd of 37 Kune-Kune pigs.
The group of Kune-Kune pigs from the behavioural observation project of the “Clever Pig Lab” has been living at Gut Aiderbichl in Henndorf since 2022.
The mini pigs Pepe and Greta already feel incredibly at home among the many mini pigs at Gut Aiderbichl and are happy about the healthy food, the thick straw beds in the pig palace and their animal carers, who always give them a good treat.
Pigs as lucky charms
Hugo (5 years), Rosalie (5 years) and Picasso (3 years), as well as the mini pigs Pepe (4 years) and Greta (5 years), had enchanted the person who was supposed to kill them with their looks. The latter decided that dying was out of the question. Pigs are highly intelligent creatures and will firstly never forget their saviour and secondly, he will be accompanied by happiness for the rest of his life.
Happiness is the only thing that doubles when you share it.
— Albert Schweitzer
Pig Hugo
Kune Kune
Hugo, Rosalie, Picasso, Pepe and Greta were handed in to the butcher by their owners. They no longer enjoyed the animals and so they were to be killed. The eyes of the young pigs must have softened the heart of the butcher, who was immediately convinced that he did not have the heart to simply slaughter the five pigs. He asked to take them in at Gut Aiderbichl.
