Remember Pablo Pigcasso, the young pig rescued from the streets of Sydney's west a year ago who was given an open paddock to forage in, and shot to fame across Canberra?
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He weighed 29 kilos back then, when Little Oak Sanctuary rescued him. The sanctuary's founders Kate and James Luke shelter and re-home animals ranging from clydesdale horses to turkeys. Kate says Pablo weighs 107 kilos and has been joined by two other pigs, Polly Piggins and Albert Sweinstein, rescued from a paddock-to-plate enterprise near Newcastle. They are both large and when fully grown will tip the scales at more than 300 kilos.
Using a $15,000 grant from Animal Protection Institute Voiceless Little Oak Sanctuary launched a public awareness campaign against the cruelty of factory farming last year an ACTION bus with images of Pablo and the other animals from the sanctuary. Kate says although no such animal as miniature pigs existed in Australia, people take gorgeous little piglets in, only to lose interest when they began to grow.
"They can be a handful and people don't realise, they think it is just like having a dog. They have a lot of dog-like qualities but are quite different," says Kate.
Little Oak Sanctuary does not take in all animals, and mostly keeps rescued pigs, which are difficult to re-home.
The Lukes have relocated their sanctuary to a new place halfway between Bungendore and Braidwood 11 times the size of their previous eight hectare place, to take in more animals.
"We have a new resident, Tyrion Lambister, who is the face of our new 'winter is coming' fundraising campaign to raise funds for shelters and stables at the new property," says Kate. "It used to be a cattle property and we have done a lot of work on the fencing. Now we are building shelters and stables. Any animal that is sick needs a secure place, especially in Canberra's cold winters."
Go to: www.littleoaksanctuary.org if you want to help these animals.
