UK: Forget designer dogs and handbag-sized Chihuahuas, micro pigs are the new must-have pet in Britain

Record ID: 773101

  • Title: UK: Forget designer dogs and handbag-sized Chihuahuas, micro pigs are the new must-have pet in Britain
  • Date: 22nd October 2009
  • Summary: CHRISTCHURCH, CAMBRIDGESHIRE, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (OCTOBER 20, 2009) (REUTERS) TRACTOR IN FIELD JANE CROFT, OWNER OF LITTLE PIG FARM, OPENS FRONT GATE AND WALKS TOWARDS PIG ENCLOSURE CROFT WHISTLES TO PIGS VARIOUS OF LARGE PIGS AND MICRO PIGS RUNNING PIG SCRATCHING ITSELF ON A ROCK MICRO PIGS IN GROUP (SOUNDBITE) (English) JANE CROFT, OWNER OF LITTLE PIG FARM,
  • Embargoed: 6th November 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Environment / Natural World,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVAEVRU67KVT0LIHVRS53YDDLMSD
  • Story Text: Micro piglets may be tiny enough to fit in a teacup, but at £700 (1,165 US dollars) their price tag is anything but small.
    The pets, which grow to be just 14 inches tall, have become so popular that they are now almost impossible to get hold of in Britain.
    They have even been snapped up by celebrities, including Harry Potter actor Rupert Grint, who plays Ron Weasley.
    Britain's only specialist breeder, Jane Croft, has a breeding farm in the village of Christchurch in Cambridgeshire. She said sales have tripled in the last few months.
    The former small-time farmer turned to raising pigs as pets instead of bacon after she ran into problems with a particular side of her Gloucester Old Spot business.
    She said: "I used to breed Gloucester Old Spots for meat, only on a small scale, and I'd give them all a pint of beer before I took them to the abattoir and play them classical music, and then when I came to pick them up I knew who they all were, and it just used to break my heart and I couldn't eat them. So this is perfect for me because I don't have to take them to the abattoir."
    Contrary to the public perception of pigs as dirty and smelly, Croft said they can easily live in the home. She teaches her micro pigs to use a litter tray and said they take much less effort to train than dogs.
    She said: "They're by nature very clean, so they will never mess around where they eat or they sleep, so they'll get as far away from those two places as possible to do their business. So if you show them a litter tray when they're very young or you show them a corner of a garden they'll always go back to the same place."
    Her smallest pint-sized porkers are just 2.5 inches (6.3 cm) long from snout to tail at birth and grow to just 12 inches.
    Croft insists her pigs make the perfect pet. She said: "They're highly intelligent, they're the fourth most intelligent animals after humans, monkeys, and dolphins and when they've bonded with you, which can take a matter of hours, they are so affectionate to you. I mean they look at you like you're another pig, there's a famous Winston Churchill saying that 'cats look down on you, dogs look up to you, but a pig looks at you like an equal.'"
    But she warns that unlike owning a cat, the crafty little pigs need a lot of careful supervision.
    She sells up to 10 micro pigs a week and said she stringently vets each prospective owner.
    They must have a government-issued livestock licence, own a large garden -- Croft double checks this on Google Earth -- and be committed to looking after the animal for its 15-year life span.
    Croft says although she eats pork, she would never feast on her own pigs. "I say to people 'would you eat your dog?'. And these are more intelligent than dogs." She added: "I couldn't eat these. No way. People are welcome to if they want to, but it's an expensive sandwich."
    The micro pigs are a mix of many breeds, including miniature pot-bellied, Tamworth, Gloucester Old Spot, Berkshire and German pigs.
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