All He Needs is Pickles

Relish, the little pig from Deer Hollow Farm in Los Altos Hills, has arrived at Healing Hearts Animal Sanctuary in Wilcox, Arizona.

Relish left Deer Hollow for Healing Hearts on Valentine’s Day and will live out his life in peace and comfort. His sister Pickles, pictured below on the left, remains at Deer Hollow where she awaits an uncertain future.

James Teixeira, recreation manager for the City of Mountain View which owns and operates Deer Hollow Farm, said giving up Pickles depends on being able to replace her and “this time of year, the breeder we're working with has a couple of groups ahead of us.'' Hmmm…

There are literally hundreds of pigs like Relish and Pickles, from infants to adults, in shelters and sanctuaries all over the country waiting for permanent, caring homes in those geographic areas where they are permitted and can be comfortably accommodated, provided with good food and clean water, appropriate housing, and quality veterinary care. Replacing Pickles for the “outdoor environmental education program” in which she participates shouldn’t require a breeder’s involvement at all, should it?

But reputable shelters and sanctuaries won’t place needy animals with facilities where they are in danger of being discarded, for profit or otherwise, once their “educational value” has decreased in proportion relative to their increased age and size.

Is it actually Pickles who faces becoming a loving mother only to experience her own babies taken away and sold at a livestock auction, like her brother would certainly have been?

Is it Pickles who will be used to perpetuate the cycle of teaching children that getting rid of healthy animals for a price, who never asked to be born in the first place, is the right thing to do? We don’t know. But somebody in the Mountain View Department of Recreation does.

Contact Deer Hollow Farm by placing a call to John Marchant at 650-903-6618. Ask them to reunite Pickles with her brother at Heavenly Hearts as soon as possible and not to contribute further to the fallacy of intentional animal breeding for intentional animal death as educational, environmentally responsible, sustainable, or justifiable.

Donate to Healing Hearts Animal Sanctuary for Relish’s future and his lifelong role as a teacher and ambassador of all things pig and wonderful.