You need to meet Firecracker 🧨 the pig!

Check out Farm Animal Refuge's website to meet more rescued animals who escaped our broken food system, and pack your plate with plant-based foods instead of eating individuals like Firecracker and his friends. 🐷

Transcript

Matt Lieurance, Co-Founder of Farm Animal Refuge: Firecracker, although he came with that name, fits him perfectly. He is a firecracker. He loves to run to the fence and greet you every time with what we call piggy puffs. It's a natural greeting that pigs have with each other. Pigs naturally touch snouts when they're greeting. He rubs his snout all over our pants. Makes them completely muddy no matter how clean you are. And he is just full of personality. I know.

Firecracker: snorts

Matt Lieurance, Co-Founder of Farm Animal Refuge: I know.

Firecracker: snorts

Matt Lieurance, Co-Founder of Farm Animal Refuge: You're a very good boy. Are you so excited? He has a lot to say to the world. He loves to run around and do the piggy barking noises when he's really excited. He loves to lounge around with his best friends, Diamond and Harmony. And he loves to sleep, eat, and just lay in his mud pit when it's hot.

So Firecracker was one of the first pigs that we ever rescued and to us, he seemed giant at that time. In actuality, he was only 180 pounds and six months old, which is the typical slaughter age and weight for a pig in the world. Which is completely baffling that they're actually slaughtered so young. So he came to us when he was just a baby. We saved him three days before he was supposed to be sent to slaughter. And he came and lived here. He was kept in an environment that was completely too small for him. It was very unsanitary and the food that they were eating was actually the compost and the trash from the local cafeteria. So they were eating not only other pork products but it was expired, slimy, moldy. Just not very good stuff. Every year on December 1st, which was the day he was actually supposed to be slaughtered, we actually make him blueberry pancakes, which is one of his favorite things. So every year we make him a healthy version of blueberry pancakes to celebrate his life and the life of what we've been able to do since we've rescued him five years ago.

I think a lot of people think that pigs are either dirty, stinky, mean or they're just not a very smart animal. When in actuality, they are one of the four smartest land animals in the entire world. They're probably the cleanest animal that we even have here. They potty train themselves very easily. They do get the misconception of being dirty because of the mud that they use, and they use that to cool themselves down. They use it for natural sunscreen as well as to help with bugs. So they will get a little dirt on them sometimes, but they don't like to be in muddy pens. They like to be in a dry, clean environment, which a lot of people don't realize.

Not only is Firecracker one of the biggest personalities here, he's one of the biggest wow factors when you meet him in real life. We call and wake him up from his nap and he comes charging over to the fence to say hi. It is incredibly powerful for people to meet him in real life. When they look into his eyes, they see that soul that's in there. They see that love and that joy that he has and it really helps people kind of make that connection and hopefully make better dietary choices when they leave here.