No porkies: Pigs share their bed
On cold nights, Eva Purkart and her partner snuggle up in bed next to two 100-kilogram kunekune pigs. The Canterbury couple and their prized trotters, Peach and Maya, go on family car rides, dance to live music and watch TV together.
However, Purkart, who is a trained veterinary nurse, says that while she loves her pigs, they can be a handful so people should be wary about getting them as household pets.
She is concerned that some Kiwis are buying piglets expecting them to remain small ‘‘teacup pigs’’ for the rest of their lives.
‘‘Miniature pigs just don’t exist. If you’re very lucky you might get a 70kg pig, but even that is pretty big to have around the house, and a whole lot of work,’’ she says from her Hororata home.
The New Zealand Kunekune Association says it has been inundated with queries from people wanting to adopt ‘‘miniature’’ pigs, though, according to an animal rights advocate, pigs should not be kept as indoor pets.
Purkart and her partner, Shane Jones, adopted Peach and Maya as 8-week-old piglets and ‘‘expected them to be half their size’’. Purkart’s cousin had bought a pet pig and, as an animal lover, she wanted one of her own.
Maya, the runt of the litter, was about the weight of a box of beer when they picked her up from her Darfield breeder. She loved to eat and play with cabbage leaves and was the active one of the duo, being much skinnier than her sister.
Peach, who was the biggest in the litter, was lazy and laid back. Both siblings were very territorial and acted as ‘‘guard pigs’’ if a stranger approached.
‘‘On the night we got them home, it was snowing so we let them sleep on a cardboard box in the kitchen. We had a whole pen set up outside but they were just so little and we just never really kicked them out,’’ Purkart says.
The porcine pair have grown from their 8kg birth weight to more than 100kg each, despite being exercised daily and fed a strict diet of grass and vegetables.
The 6-year-old sisters eat out of dinner bowls, dance to live music at a nearby cafe and go on walks in a harness at the nearby domain. When they’re in the car, they have to be restrained, otherwise they will ‘‘try and get in the driver’s seat’’. They are bathed, brushed and pampered with shampoo to keep their skin soft and clean.
Life with the sisters has not always been smooth sailing. Purkart and Jones once returned home from a trip to find the pigs had rampaged through their house. They had opened the glass sliding door with their snouts and ate a 1kg bag of sugar, smashed a tablet computer and broke ‘‘a heap of stuff’’ before they were caught.
‘‘That was certainly an interesting insurance claim,’’ Purkart says.
On another occasion, Peach sniffed out Easter treats and went into anaphylactic shock after having an allergic reaction.
Purkart says she had no idea how big her pigs would get and was not warned by the breeder of what to expect.
The New Zealand Kunekune Association website says it has been swamped with queries about ‘‘miniature’’ kunekune. Despite kunekune meaning fat and round in Ma¯ ori, the breed is actually one of the smallest and therefore most popular options as a domestic pet. The group’s website says it is working towards developing a policy around what constitutes a miniature pig and firming up breeder guidelines.
Freedom Farms NZ advocates for fair treatment of farm animals. A spokeswoman for the organisation, Hilary Pearson, says people should not keep indoor pigs and their owners need to stop being so ‘‘pignorant’’.
‘‘The research is pretty clear that pigs need socialisation with other pigs [and] a natural environment where they can forage and do piggie things.
‘‘Our belief is pretty strongly that they shouldn’t be kept in a home environment.’’
Purkart says the spacious yard at her home gives the pigs the opportunity to roam outdoors and keeps them ‘‘happy and healthy’’.
‘‘I wouldn’t like to think of people locking a pig indoors all day.’’
Vendors overseas have gone to great lengths to breed litters of small pigs to meet demand after their rise in popularity through reality TV. In 2009, Paris Hilton shone the spotlight on her new pet pig, Princess Pigelette, and the farm animal’s popularity spiked again in 2012, when the family of American pageant celebrity Honey Boo Boo decided a pig was the perfect companion.
"I wouldn’t like to think of people locking a pig indoors all day." Eva Purkart