A family of spotted pigs have been given their own reality TV series that aims to expose “the scam of teacup pigs”, that many are unaware of.
Pig Little Lies is a new video series from Unchained TV in the US, that aims to expose the sale of regular piglets as a breed of micro-pigs that will remain small for their lifetime.
This has been likened to catfishing, a deceptive activity where a person targets a specific victim and creates a false narrative to deceive them online, sometimes for financial gain.
The false marketing of these animals by breeders, many of whom take in up to $1,500 per pig, has resulted in the abandonment of thousands of pigs in shelters, where they are regularly put down due to rehoming difficulties.
The five-part series follows the rescue of Dante the pig and “his wife” Beatrice, who is pregnant with 12 piglets, from a “high-kill shelter”. The family were previously left in the facility when they outgrew their owners expectations, who was under the impression that they were ‘teacup’ pigs.
In the first episode, viewers can follow along as Beatrice gives birth to 12 piglets in her new home with wildlife rehabilitator Cindy Brady in Los Angeles. However, one of the piglets, Violet, is the runt and as Beatrice cannot feed her, she finds a new home where she is raised by hand.
At birth, each of the piglets weighs around 500g, half the weight of a bag of sugar. However, experts in the show explain that they will be between 70kg and 90kg at maturity, which is what consumers often do not understand.
Founder of Unchained TV Jane Velez-Mitchell said:
“Everybody wants a pot bellied pig when they’re cute and small like this. But then when they grow up to be 150 to 200lbs, they just dump them at the shelter.”
Pig Little Lies also features Teri Crutchfield, the founder of California-based animal rescue charity, Saving Animals and Healing Hearts, who outlined the severity of the issue.
“We get easily get 5-10 calls a week from people who have so-called miniature pigs and are trying to dump them because they’re too big,” she explained.
“These pigs are pouring into shelters. It’s a tragedy that could be avoided if we just stopped breeding them for profit.
She outlined that while some breeds of pig may not grow to be as big as others, even the smallest rare breeds of pig will still be far too big for a teacup, which people must understand.
All five episodes which are 10 minutes each, can be streamed for free on the UnchainedTV website said Velez-Mitchell.
“We used a fun approach to send a serious message; this scam is happening all over America. We rescued one pig family but saw other abandoned pigs coming into shelters as we were filming.
“We can’t rescue them all, but, we can urge the public not to fall for it,” she concluded.
