Willi the pig
It was a holiday without a return ticket
From the perspective of an Aiderbichler
(written by Gisela Pschenitschnig)
Three-year-old Willi was left with an elderly lady for a week or two, but was never picked up again. The owner simply never got in touch.
The mini pot-bellied pig Willi lived together with the chickens, which was unacceptable from an epidemiological point of view. The veterinary office threatened to slaughter Willi and set a specific deadline, giving Willi the opportunity to be rehomed in a species-appropriate manner. If this had not been possible, Willi would have ended up in the slaughterhouse.
Willi's lifesavers have been Aiderbichler for 10 years
(…) as we have been Aiderbichler for 10 years and want to rescue animals …. I would like to ask you for help for Willi. He is very sweet and tame (…)
Here people have understood:
As long as we have to protect animals from us, we have achieved nothing. Only when we no longer have to protect animals will we have reached our goal, then we will have changed something: Us”.
Thanks to the prudence of the family, who put the Aiderbichler animal welfare concept into practice through their actions, Willi’s young life was saved.
Responsibility - Morality - "Will - have" society
According to the Animal Welfare Act, pet owners are obliged to take responsibility for their animals by providing them with appropriate care, nutrition and accommodation (see TierSchG, Section 2).
Pigs, whether large domestic pigs or mini pot-bellied pigs, exert a certain fascination on people. Pigs quickly develop “intellectual” contact with humans. They recognise us by our voice, feel joy for their human friend, pigs recognise us by our smell, the way we walk and they talk to humans with their many loud and soft “oink” sounds. Pigs are as intelligent as apes and humans. They are persistent and achieve whatever they set out to do.
I have a garden, I buy a pig. It can live in a small wooden hut. Are people aware that pigs don’t want to live alone, that they are highly socialised creatures? Do people who buy a little piglet for the garden realise that this adorable little piglet will grow into a full-grown pig that will dig around the garden to wallow? You can take a mini pot-bellied pig for a walk on a dog lead, but what do you do when the pig is fully grown?
Animals impress us in nature films with their survival skills, as fictional characters and actors on television. They are often rather alien to us in their own natural behaviour and forms of expression, in their intelligence, their species-specific and individual needs.
The "will - have" society and the fulfilment of dreams
As in the clothing industry, there are also fashion trends in the animal world. People want a pug – don’t think about torture breeding, people want a donkey – don’t think about the fact that it will cry “iah” all day out of loneliness, people want a pony in the garden – it gets boring, people want chickens and a rooster in the garden – the rooster has to go because it crows loudly. The list of such wishes would be long. We want to have and we buy – but often the thought is not thought through to the end.
Willi was supposed to stay with an animal-loving lady and her chickens for a few days – from the very beginning, the previous owners never thought of picking Willi up again. At best, Willi was lucky that he wasn’t abandoned in a forest somewhere.
Animals, plants, ecosystems, species or nature as a whole are recognised as having their own moral status in the animal and environmental ethics debate. Accordingly, humans have direct duties towards animals and nature and not merely duties towards other humans.
Willi is one of the many abandoned “will – have” animals. He has settled in perfectly at his new animal sanctuary Gut Aiderbichl Iffeldorf. Lots of pigs were happy when Willi ran off the lorry. – We wish Willi all the best for his future life as a pig.Herzlichst, Ihre Gisela
