Woman Wants Sitter Charged With Abuse After Pet Pig Gains 100 Pounds

WINONA, Minn. — A woman wants abuse charges filed against an acquaintance who was pet-sitting for her potbellied pig and allowed the animal to get fat.
Michelle Schmitz said her pig, Alaina Templeton, weighed 50 pounds when Schmitz left her with a co-worker who offered to care for the animal in February, when Schmitz went on medical leave to recover from ankle surgeries.
Nine months later, the pig weighed 150 pounds and it took veterinarians 4 1/2 hours to surgically remove the animal's collar, the Winona Daily News reported. Officers are investigating whether Alaina was abused by the sitter's neglect and overfeeding.
Investigator Jeff Mueller of the Winona County Sheriff's Department said Tuesday that no charges had been filed against the pig sitter, whose name was not released.
Schmitz, 22, said she bottle-fed Alaina when she was just 11 days old and kept her on a strict diet to keep her weight at about 50 pounds.
more at link http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,306677,00.html

We want our pigs to gain weight !!!! They're for sale when we get them up to at least 235. One customer wants his at 280. Problem here is all the slaughter houses are booked through December. We have six who are pretty near full weight and ready for slaughter. No, I am not slaughtering any for myself this year. We won a quarter of a hog with our Farm Bureau and don't need any more pork this year. A couple of years ago I kept one little piglet who would come up to me everytime I went near the hog pen. We repaired it and so the pigs were loose for a bit. I had to keep them all in an area and this one little female stayed right by me. I started calling her Miss Piggy. We secured a hog and bred her twice. The BarnGod went out of town during one snowstorm and I came home to find no Miss Piggy or mate in the pen. I noticed tracks leading to the tack room and opened the door to a huge mess of horse harness all over the place. I called out and got a couple of grunts. The next morning, they had left and gone back to the pen. We now call the tack room the Hog's Breath Hotel, LOL.

Sorry about the lady's pot belly. If they are fed large meals, they will get as big as any of our domestic pigs. I have no idea how they kept a collar on it. When we have to catch pigs a lariat around the neck is not going to work. They slip right out of them. This year I've pretty much tamed the critters so we can get them to load in the trailer easier. I walk by the pen every time I go after eggs and they come up for a pet and a scratch. I also give them leftovers. I hand feed them these scraps.

When I first read this blurb I was wondering how long the woman left the pig for. For some reason I thought it said one month and I about fell off my chair thinking of that poor piggy gaining 100 pounds in a month. I now see it says 9 months. This story is bizarre, but it is definitely cruel to let an animal triple in size in that amount of time. Poor piggy.

"That pig is my life," the owner says and she has the pig's name tattooed on her.

Yet she entrusted her pet to a sitter when she didn't even know where the sitter lived.

People amaze me!

Nova said:

"That pig is my life," the owner says and she has the pig's name tattooed on her.

Yet she entrusted her pet to a sitter when she didn't even know where the sitter lived.

People amaze me!

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I noticed that too. Not to mention she didn't even try to visit him for several months.

I admittedly know nothing about pigs and their typical weight. Does this sound like pig abuse to anyone who knows about pigs?

Masterj said:

I noticed that too. Not to mention she didn't even try to visit him for several months.

I admittedly know nothing about pigs and their typical weight. Does this sound like pig abuse to anyone who knows about pigs?

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I was thinking the same things you and Nova are.

I don't know about the typical weight of this kind of pig, but it sure is abuse to let the collar grow into her neck.

I bet this pig-sitter fed this poor animal just any old scraps and left-overs and not her proper diet. Just my guess.

At the same time Miss Owner should get off her high-horse.

montana_16 said:

I was thinking the same things you and Nova are.

I don't know about the typical weight of this kind of pig, but it sure is abuse to let the collar grow into her neck.

I bet this pig-sitter fed this poor animal just any old scraps and left-overs and not her proper diet. Just my guess.

At the same time Miss Owner should get off her high-horse.

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I agree about the owner getting off her high horse...because it sure doesn't take 9 MONTHS to get over ankle surgery. Sounds like to me the owner should be charged with abandoning the pet!

If the pig meant so much to her, why didn't she keep it with her after her surgery? She had ankle surgery, might not have been very mobile, but she could have had someone come over her place to feed her pig. I had a pot bellied pig, Saralina, as a pet for my sons. We had her 5 years, since she was a tiny thing. She weighed 120 pounds when she died. Never put a collar on her, had a harness for her when we walked her. We fed her pig feed and veggies.
I agree something is fishy about this story...not seeing her pet for 9 months, and not knowing where the woman lived? Doesn't even say if she gave the sitter the food or feeding instructions. When any of my pets go to the vets for overnight stays, I'm calling first thing in the morning to check on them, and go see them daily.

Let me kind of justify the weight gain of the pot belly pig. They will get as large as any other pig if given ample feed. We buy ours in the late spring as "feeder pigs". They are weened and about 20 to 30 pounds each. We feed them until late fall with quality pig feed. Prime slaughter weight is at least 230. So in 6 months or so, they need to gain 200 pounds or more. Even though I mentioned scraps in my post above, our pigs get very little table scraps. What bothers me is the collar. In relation to their necks and shoulders, pigs heads are small. They have huge, almost no necks at all. How the heck you can keep a collar around a pig's neck is beyond me. I'm suprised it didn't rub it off. Since all our pigs are expected to gain weight, I can't tell you what diet would be appropriate for a pot belly pig to keep them small.

BG really they can get that big? Mine was a miniature vietnamese pot belly, vet told me she shouldn't get over 150 to be healthy.

SadieMae said:

BG really they can get that big? Mine was a miniature vietnamese pot belly, vet told me she shouldn't get over 150 to be healthy.

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Sadie, ours are Hampshires and Durocs, the standard barnyard and pigs for slaughter. The 4H kids raise them for the fair. Their ideal weight for market is at least 230 pounds. I know the Vietnamese pigs are used here as pets, but I've heard they can get large if "overfed".

I just googled and found this:

http://healthypigs.easystorecreator.com/pig_nutrition.asp

I see why your vet said 150 pounds. I have no experience with these pigs, but see that 150 would be large. Right now our smallest pig is about that and she's a pretty good size.

This site says a pot bellied pig can be 250 pounds and not be overweight:

http://www.pigs4ever.com/PotBelliedPigInfo/size_weight.htm

We don't keep anything that gets to be the thousand pounds described. Forget that!!!!!!

1,000 pounds is a lotta bacon!!!

SadieMae said:

1,000 pounds is a lotta bacon!!!

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Man, you ought to taste my bacon. It's totally unlike commercial. We were lucky to get 10 packages of bacon from the quarter hog we won. Fresh curing done by our local locker is out of this world. Out here, a locker is the meat processor. You deliver a live animal and they take it from there. If you don't have freezer space you can rent a locker there also. I don't know if a hog that large would taste that good. BTW, they discard the liver of hogs. It seems that they have a tendency toward cirrosis of the liver. Don't know why, it doesn't affect other meat. We do stop in when we pass by and they give us all the beef liver we want for free. A lot of people don't like liver, so they freeze it and give it away.