With the Year of the Pig starting on Tuesday, pig lovers fear that a rush of people wanting to usher good fortune into their homes by getting a piglet as a pet could lead to a wave of abandoned animals.
Anita Chen, who runs a social media forum for owners of pet pig and has two pigs at her home in Taipei, said that the first thing owners have to consider is their freedom and flexibility.
Pigs like her Xin Xin and Mei Mei have the intelligence of a five-year-old child and can open everything from fridges to doors and drawers, often removing everything inside, to the horror of their homecoming owners, Chen said.
Photo: Reuters / Tyrone Siu
“Piglets are very attached to people, they will constantly squeak to make you play with them or feed them,” she said, adding that many overwhelmed owners abandon piglets after just a few months.
Visitors at a petting farm in Taoyuan get a kick out feeding milk to piglets in a pen, and many want to take one home.
“We don’t advise this, as they are farm animals,” farm owner Yang San-guei said.
Bama pigs, the species most commonly kept as pets in Taiwan, might be small and cute when they are young, but can grow to a hulking 60kg, Yang said.
However, if visitors will not be warned off, Yang said he is willing to sell piglets for NT$3,000.
The other little pigs go to market when they outgrow their pen.
Veterinarian Chang Chien-ming said that anyone thinking of getting a pig should their research them thoroughly to avoid nasty surprises “so that they know how big these pigs can grow, find a veterinarian, and educate themselves about medical and nutritional aspects,” Chang said.
He said he had also seen renewed enthusiasm for pigs as pets over the past year.
Veterinary clinics willing to treat pigs are difficult to find, with only one-in-100 accepting pig patients, Chang said.
Many owners quickly realize that having a porcine pet can seriously crimp their holiday plans. Pet hotels do not accept pigs.
Abandoned pigs in Taiwan have a harder time finding a new home than cats and dogs.
Publicly funded shelters do not accept pigs, as they are not classified as pets, leaving it to pet lovers or private shelters to take them in.
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry