Pigs

A Day in the Life of Pickles the Rescue Pig

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Every day, 3.8 million pigs are killed around the world. Pickles is one of the lucky few spared from this fate.

All photo credits: Julie Knopp

At less than one year old, Pickles the pig was just a baby—but it was nearly time for him to be slaughtered.

Pickles was a “show pig,” raised by a child in the 4-H program. He had completed a circuit of shows with high ratings, but the parameters of the program indicate that, after one season of competition, children must turn their animal over to auction. There was just one problem—this family had fallen in love with Pickles.

Pickles’ family contacted Farmaste Animal Sanctuary, located in Lindstrom, MN, hoping to save their beloved companion from slaughter. With that, Pickles became one of the few lucky pigs in the world who would get to live out their natural lives in rescue. Soon, Pickles would become one of the best-loved residents at the sanctuary.

Who is Pickles?

On a summer day at Farmaste, long-time animal care volunteer Ness Oszast prepares breakfast for Pickles. She stops chopping food for a moment to show some heartwarming selfies she took with her pig friend.

“That’s me holding hands with Pickles,” she says. “He’s just the cutest. When you’re having a bad day, you can just cuddle Pickles and everything will be better. He has not a care in the world, which is very needed in this day and age. You always feel like you are wanted with Pickles.” Pickles interrupts with a loud vocalization, telling Oszast that he’s ready for breakfast.

“He’s careless in the best way,” Oszast continues. “He doesn’t care about anything except for being happy and joyous, and he brushes things off pretty quickly.”

At Farmaste, Pickles has a life of freedom, play, and companionship that most pigs will never experience. He’s returning the favor by freely sharing his cheerful spirit with sanctuary visitors. Pickles is testament to the fact that, when we treat farm animals with kindness, we receive far more than we give. A behind-the-scenes look at Pickles’ day-to-day life offers a rare glimpse into the experiences of rescued farm animals and provides a vision for the compassionate future we can build.

Pickles day image

8:00am: Pickles’ day begins

Breakfast time

Farmaste volunteers arrive each day around 7:00-8:00 am, and Pickles is typically already awake, rooting in the pasture.

“Depending on how early Pickles sees you, he’ll start whining immediately to get his meal,” Oszast says.

Pickles—and all of the pigs at Farmaste—eat a super-sized salad for breakfast, prepared in a massive rubber dish. The base of the salad is commercial grain pellets for potbelly pigs. While none of the pigs at Farmaste are potbellies, potbelly food contains fewer calories than industrial pig food, so it’s more suitable for pigs living out their lives in sanctuary. Pigs raised for food are typically fed a calorie-dense diet (primarily corn and soy), so that by the time they go to slaughter at about six months old, they will reach a typical market weight of around 200+ pounds.

“In the industry, their goal is just to put on as much weight as fast as possible, which is the opposite of what we want to do. The best thing we can do for their health is keep them on the trim side to stave off arthritis and other diseases,” Farmaste Vice President Shannon Kehle-Forbes says.

Volunteers soak the potbelly pig food in water to ensure that Pickles gets enough water each day. According to Kehle-Forbes, pigs are prone to salt and water imbalances, and sometimes they do not get enough fluids on their own.

Mixed in with the grain pellets, Pickles’ breakfast consists of a variety of leftover produce donated by local grocery stores. A single breakfast might contain a bag of spinach, a cucumber, an apple, a stalk of celery, several bell peppers, and a watermelon—all chopped into small pieces to avoid any risk of choking. (A fellow pig resident once choked on a chunk of pumpkin, and Farmaste President Kelly Tope performed the Heimlich maneuver to help her. The food was successfully dislodged, and the pig was okay.)

One thing that’s unique about Pickles’ salad is that it almost always includes a bag of frozen peas mixed in for extra protein. Pickles was bred to have “double muscle,” so he would appear strong for shows. In order to meet the unique nutritional needs of his muscle composition, vets recommended additional protein for Pickles.

Getting ready for the day ahead

As Pickles chows down on his breakfast, Oszast sprays him with sunscreen and insect repellent to prepare him for his day in the pasture. Kept inside factory farms, most pigs will almost never feel the sun on their skin. Pigs in sanctuary, who are allowed to grow old and experience the outdoors, often suffer from skin cancer later in life, and sunscreen can mitigate the risk.

Additionally, insect repellent can help increase comfort and decrease risk of bites or irritation from bugs in the pasture.

12:00pm: An afternoon in Pickles’ hooves

Pickles rooting image

Rooting

Pigs free from confinement spend up to 75% of their waking time rooting, and Pickles is no exception. Rooting is an important behavior in which pigs use their snout to explore the dirt, plants, and other matter in their surroundings. While pigs in factory farms have no access to soil, Pickles is able to fully indulge in the joys of this natural behavior.

“We cut down the amount of food they get in the summer because they’re rooting. That’s partially to encourage them to root because it’s good for them to move around. Rooting is one of their natural instincts. They find roots, little bugs and grubs, and things like that,” Kehle-Forbes says.

Sleeping

Pickles loves to take naps throughout the day (just as long as he doesn’t miss meal time). Pigs can sleep up to 18 hours per day, but since Pickles is young, his caretakers estimate he sleeps about 12-15 hours per day. Pickles usually sleeps in his “nest,” a sheltered stall filled with straw for bedding.

Wallowing

In the summer, Pickles likes to spend time in the wallow—a shallow depression in the pasture filled with muddy water. Pigs wallow by partially or fully submerging themselves in these mud pits. This is another natural behavior for pigs, especially in hot weather. Because pigs have few sweat glands and high body fat, they often feel overheated. Coating themselves in mud can lower their body temperature and increase their comfort. Farmaste volunteers know to be cautious when refilling the wallows with water, because Pickles’ playful spirit gets the best of him, and he often grabs the hose and starts throwing it around!

Socializing

Pickles shares the pasture with an older companion named Violet. Their relationship has sometimes been rocky, but they’ve developed a friendship over time.

Pickles and Violet image

“Pickles is very much the little brother saying ‘play with me, play with me; love me, love me,’ and Violet is like, ‘I don’t know man,’” Kehle-Forbes says. “When Pickles first arrived, they did fight a little bit. They always will, to establish who’s in charge. But pretty quickly Pickles started trying to win her over. I’m very impressed with his persistence. You could just see him being like: ‘I’m going to make you love me.’ She would yell at him or nip at him, and within a second he’d be right back. He’d be like: ‘Are we friends now?’ After watching him try so hard for so long to get in, that she finally allowed him in, that was a special moment to get to see.”

Kehle-Forbes expands on their budding friendship: “They do activities together now. They’re both out in the wallow together, or they’ll be out rooting together. One of my favorite things is you’ll hear them talking to each other. You’ll just hear oinks back and forth. They’re having a conversation.”

Pickles enjoys human companionship too. He especially loves belly rubs! Many volunteers think of Pickles as their “little helper,” because in the wintertime, he developed a habit of returning his food dish to the volunteers after eating. (Sometimes he would even return Violet’s dish too!)

“He likes to be part of the action,” Oszast says. “If you’re out there doing something, he’s going to be with you.”

7:00pm: Pickles’ Night Life

In the evening, volunteers return to prepare dinner for Pickles around 6:00-7:00 pm. Once again, he enjoys a gargantuan salad of donated produce, mixed with potbelly pig feed.

Reflecting on Pickles’ favorite foods, Kehle-Forbes says: “All the pigs love fruit. Pickles also really likes spinach, carrots, and crunchy stuff like that. I don’t think I’ve found anything yet that Pickles doesn’t like.” (Some of the other resident pigs are pickier eaters, and when preparing their meals, volunteers try to hide any of their disliked foods within the large salads.)

Pickles typically continues roaming and rooting in the pasture until the sun sets. He will often fall asleep outside, and then after a few hours, make his way inside where he’ll spend the rest of the night dozing in the nest alongside Violet.

What We Can Learn from Pickles

While Pickles enjoys two acres of pasture to roam with Violet, many pigs in the agriculture industry are confined to barren pens so small that they cannot comfortably turn around or lie down. Most pigs raised for food will never root in a pasture or feel the warmth of the sun. Instead, they will spend their entire life trapped inside a dark factory farm, without access to grass, mud, or proper socialization.

Pigs are considered one of the most intelligent animals on earth, outranking dogs and young children on intelligence tests. Pickles cleaning up after himself following his meals is just one small example of the thoughtful inner lives of pigs. Research indicates that pigs can even play tricks on each other. This reflects a high level of planning, as well as an understanding that each individual has subjective experiences—an awareness previously thought to be unique to humans.

Pickles down image

When we take the time to get to know farm animals like Pickles, we have the opportunity to see them as individuals and reconsider our relationship to this widely abused species. By discovering Pickles’ bright and loving nature, we may understand the need for more compassionate care for pigs and other animals used for food.

“It’s important to remember that just like your cat or your dog or your best friend or you, each animal has a personality, has the capacity to feel, has their own interests, and wants to live a happy and healthy life. It’s really easy to just cognitively forget about that and to fall back into the ways we’re used to, or the ways we grew up. It’s hard to change but it can be very rewarding,” Oszast says.

How You Can Make a Difference for Animals Like Pickles

More than one billion pigs like Pickles are killed each year for food. Tope knows sanctuaries can’t save them all. Every individual animal Farmaste rescues requires space, money, and time to properly care for. “We can’t rescue our way out of this situation,” Tope says.

But we can support policies and choose foods that dramatically reduce harm to animals like Pickles. Whether that means signing petitions that call upon legislators or corporations to end extreme animal confinement or eating more plant-based meals, each of us plays an important role in creating a brighter future for animals.

“I feel like we’re really lucky because the incoming generations are all about not doing things the way that they were always done just because that’s the way they were always done. My goal is just to live as compassionately as possible. It’s about doing the best you can to make sure we are taking care of this planet,” Oszast says.