Pigs that escaped onto a busy dual carriageway, bringing an A-road to a standstill, have been spared from slaughter after online donors stepped in to help.
The animals ran onto the A127 at Dunton, near Basildon in Essex, last week. They were seen weaving between vehicles, forcing the road to close for about two hours.
Fourteen pigs escaped, but five were shot by police at the scene because of safety concerns. It remains unclear where the animals had escaped from.
One pig, later named Abigail, took refuge in a local resident’s garden. She was taken to Tower Hill Stables in Asheldham before police could shoot her.
Martin Morgan, who founded the sanctuary in 1993, said in a Facebook video that Abigail was “safe now” but “very scared after being on the run trying to avoid rifles”.
He told the Daily Mail that her name was inspired by the A127, as A, B and G are the first, second and seventh letters of the alphabet.
Eight more pigs were due to be slaughtered on Tuesday, but local residents raised £6,000 through a GoFundMe appeal to pay for their care.
Mr Morgan initially expected to take in just one pig, after a resident contacted him to say the animal had ended up in her garden.
Pigs that escaped onto a busy dual carriageway and brought an A-road to a standstill have been saved from being shot after online donors raised funds for their care (pictured after being rehomed at Tower Hill Stables)
The animals forced the A127 to close after running onto the road at Dunton, near Basildon, last week
Fourteen pigs escaped, and five were shot by police at the scene because of safety concerns. Their place of escape is unknown
Nine pigs were due to be slaughtered, but local residents raised £6,000 through an online fundraiser to help save them
However, he agreed to take in eight more after learning they could lose their lives if a home was not found for them.
He told the Mail: “Support for the farm has dwindled since Covid, so taking them in was a difficult decision. We don’t actively look to take on animals unless it’s a desperate situation because we’re already struggling.
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“But when I was asked to take them otherwise they’d get shot, that’s a very difficult stress to live with.”
He added: “I didn’t sleep the night we were told about it because I did not think we could fit them in – like most sanctuaries, we are struggling.”
The sanctuary cleared a shed for the newcomers, who joined around 80 horses, 50 cows, 75 goats and hundreds of other rescued animals.
Mr Morgan believes Abigail is the mother of the other pigs because three young females immediately ran to her for comfort. Pigs can typically be hostile towards unfamiliar animals when they first meet.
The five males have been separated to prevent them from breeding. Mr Morgan said: “Whoever had these pigs before has been breeding willy nilly.”
He said the pigs were settling in well, adding: “They’re very friendly and seem quite happy.”
‘A couple of them are a bit scared so it’ll take them a couple weeks to calm down, but they’ll be fine. Pigs adapt to their surroundings pretty quickly.’
Mr Morgan, who looks after 400 animals, said the males arrived ‘underweight’ and females were in ‘good condition’.
In a video shared to Facebook he called some of them ‘quite thin and tiny’ while others are ‘a little bit feisty’.
He said: ‘we can’t save every animal, we know that we can’t change the world for every animal but we can change the world for every animal that we are able to rescue.
‘The pigs won’t know any different or how lucky they are.’
Mr Morgan added the farm spends £25,000 a month on food for the animals and donations are about helping to make ends meet.
‘The key thing is monthly support because it’s not just next month’s food bill we need to pay it’s the one after that… The monthly costs are every month. Without that support we’d have to close, so we’re very grateful.’