Remember that time George Clooney got a pig?

We have all seen the videos, the tik tok’s, Instagram posts and celebs flaunting their teacup babies, but are there consequences to this new mad craze?

Local vegan vet, Agustin Gonzalez knows all too well the trouble it has caused.

A few Vietnamese pigs were bought and exported to Mijas, Andalucía Spain to be kept as cute pets. As you can imagine, this living arrangement did not quite work out as the pigs started to mate. Two became… well a lot more. The owner killed one of them and the rest of them saw and didn’t trust him anymore. Pigs are intelligent beings and understand much more than we believe them to.

The owners of these pigs then abandoned them into the wild very close to the town of Mijas costa, Southern Spain where they of course do not belong. The pigs adapted well to the climate in Spain and started to mix with the other wild pigs in the area.

These pigs have since bred and interbred with the other wild pigs and there is now a small colony of the species living in an eco-system that is unnatural to their own. They are surviving, but to no fault of their own, they could potentially damage the eco-system of their new habitat, and have already started a new breed of pig that’s unnatural to any area as they shouldn’t of even met.

The Spanish government decided to let the pigs be killed, hunted in fact for fun to rid the pig population within the area. They made this decision without consulting scientists, vets, or specialists.

A local group run by @Lisa Amado Ferguson currently take care of the pigs with a rota of who goes to feed them every day.

Lisa reached out to Agustin to see if he could come and castrate the males to keep them protected. Of course, he said yes, and went last Sunday to trap, neuter and release the pigs to control the population and resolve any concerns over damage to the eco-system.

Lisa and the gang spent the day trying to get as many males as they could into a local veg farmers stables. They were able to trap 5 males ready for Agustin to neuter.

The castration went well, and the pigs were later released back to the group.

The original owner who left the pigs has moved back to England and left more mess behind than he could ever imagine. 

Please think about the consequences of our actions when it comes to animals. All this because someone thought it might be nice to have pet pigs.

Of course no one has been paying for this, the work was done by Lisa and the other members of the group caring for the pigs, Agustin and his vet nurse who spent the day doing this to save the lives of the pigs, they also provided the medicine needed to do the operations.

Luckily, the government have now said that they will not kill the pigs if they’re being nurtured and cared for thanks to Agustin and Lisa.

You can keep up to date with the pigs by following Plataforma SOS 🆘 Cerditos abandonados 🐷