This story started back in 2018 when my Landlords demanded their land back as they could make far more money with trying to put in for building, we were desperately looking around for another tenant farm to move Molly and Polly to.
By the summer of 2019 things were not getting better still no chance of finding a tenant farm Unfortunately, Molly and Polly only had one avenue to go and that was not going to happen. By chance a friend allowed me to use an area of his ground to keep the girls on, hoping that something else would come along.
And then covid hit and the shut down for the next 18 months caused mayhem in more ways than one, come May 2021 the gentleman wanted to do other things on his ground and gave me until the end of September to try and rehome them. I phone the length and breadth of the country’s sanctuaries and I got the same answer, they could not take on any more pigs they were full. I even tried the care farms in Dorset and Devon.
With most care farms they rear pigs for one purpose as they cannot keep them just for the sake of it so my stress level was now off the chart, although one of the care farms did place a help on his social medial page, I wasn’t holding any hope. September came and went and an extension was granted but they had to be gone by the end of October.
On the eleventh hour a young couple offered to take them they lived on a farm in Cornwall there was the room. We had a long talk so they knew what they were taking on,. The transport was arranged, but the next problem was how on earth was I going to load these two from an outdoor run. It called for 5 boxes of Morrison jammy doughnuts, a bag of apples, and a bag of pears. I had not fed them first thing in the morning hoping their stomachs would get the better of them. The one that I thought was going to give me the most problems was Molly in fact it was her daughter Polly, of all the days not to come on heat was that day.
It took 2 hours of being patient and not grumbling to load and then their long trip of three and a half hours to their new home in Cornwall. I thought I had found their forever home. Once the girls got over their transport lag the whole family used to come and give them scratches and hugs they absolutely adored them and I would get regular photos to keep updated.
Then out of the blue, on Boxing day I got a text to tell me that the chap had hurt his back badly which meant he could not work and they were left with a part-time wage. They had found homes for their other animals, but asked me to take the girls back. I wished I could, but I had tried everywhere around the area that might have a bit of land that they did not want, so I knew that was not an option, plus the cost of getting them back again.
So I went on Facebook and hunted to see if I could find any different sanctuaries that I had not contacted before. A further 7 emails were sent, one sanctuary did respond but I was not holding my breath. Pigs are not easy to rehome as you can't house them with other pigs to start with, and you have to have two plots to rotate one for the summer and one for the winter. After a long talk, it was agreed that this new sanctuary would act as foster parents and I would pay for any pig food and bedding
Molly and Polly are the first of many on the waiting list to be the new residents of the sanctuary. Once we have raised this capital for them to have the happy ending they and lots of other animals deserve.
Comments