WHAT A PIG 'Clarendon' in need of a forever home
“Clarendon,” a roughly 1-year-old, 100-pound pig, has fully taken in her surroundings inside a pen at Dedham’s branch of the Animal Rescue League since being rescued in late October.
The brown-haired porker hasn’t received much public interest, but that doesn’t mean the ARL will be letting go of its mission of finding Clarendon her special, forever home.
Mike Defina, media relations officer for the ARL, has been with the organization for six years, and he said Clarendon’s “dynamic” personality separates her from pigs that have been rescued in the past.
“She acts in many ways like a dog,” Defina told the Herald on Wednesday while petting Clarendon. “She runs around in her pen like a dog would, kind of getting the zoomies. She responds when you call her name. She comes, she follows you around. Her personality is sparkling.”
Clarendon has a “unique backstory,” Defina said. The pig’s journey to the ARL started last year when she came down to Boston with her owner from northern New England to visit a family member.
The owner left Clarendon behind in Boston, and the family member contacted Boston Animal Control which then transported the pig to the ARL’S Dedham Animal Care and Adoption Center.
Upon her arrival, Clarendon went through quarantine before receiving several veterinary checkups, Defina said.
“She is very healthy,” Defina
said of the pig. “Since that period in early November, she has settled in really quickly. We have been trying to find her a home for almost four months now. With a pig like her, she’s going to need a special kind of home.”
Pigs that the ARL has rescued in the past have typically stayed in its care for a little bit longer than a month, Defina said. For some, it’s taken six months to a year to be adopted.
It may take another year or two for Clarendon to reach her full growth in the neighborhood of 300 pounds. The ARL is committed to ensuring Clarendon lives a long, prosperous life on a farm somewhere, the opposite of the pig’s original fate as she was bred to be consumed, Defina said.
Clarendon is not the only unusual animal the ARL has rescued in the past several months. “Kate,” a 30-pound white turkey that came to the farm around Thanksgiving, received strong interest before being adopted during the holiday season.
“She is going to need a large farm,” Defina said of Clarendon, “an agricultural type of property where she will have plenty of room to roam around, explore, interact with both people and other animals and just really allow her to be her.”
Interested adopters can contact ARL’S Dedham Animal Care and
Adoption Center by calling (617) 426-9170 x605, or emailing dedhamadoption@arlboston.org.