Piggy-Sue enjoys Christmas instead of being served up as part of Xmas Dinner

Piggy-Sue wallows in freedom

By KATE NEWTON - The Dominion Post | 5:00AM - Monday, 28 December 2009

FIT AND HAPPY: Piggy-Sue with owner Carolyn Press-McKenzie. “She wags her tail all the time.”
— KENT BLECHYNDEN/The Dominion Post.

She could have been the glazed centrepiece of someone's Christmas feast — but instead Piggy-Sue enjoyed her own very merry Christmas wallowing in the mud in Upper Hutt.

The sow — a large white — was sprung from the Reid piggery in Carterton in May during undercover filming for TVNZ's Sunday programme, which revealed disturbing images of intensive pig farming.

She now lives at Huha Animal Sanctuary in Kaitoke, run by Carolyn Press-McKenzie, who bought Piggy-Sue as part of the programme.

The change in Piggy-Sue in the past seven months has been "the difference between day and night", Mrs Press-McKenzie says.

"Before she was just existing — now she's living."

Among the many new experiences for Piggy-Sue, who had never been outside before her rescue, has been Wellington's changeable weather.

Mrs Press-McKenzie was concerned that she might not cope with Kaitoke's cold winters, but instead she turned up her snout at attempts to keep her cosy.

"We made her this amazing shelter filled with straw that was all snuggly and warm, but she'd go and stand out in the snow.

"She'd spend hours out there, just frolicking in the snow. It was gorgeous to watch."

Along with a coat of bristly hair and a slightly grubbier appearance, Piggy-Sue has also gained a best friend — a kunekune-large white cross called Herbie.

"They're really cute — they spoon at night," says Mrs Press-McKenzie, who stayed at the sanctuary over Christmas, taking special care that Piggy-Sue and the other pigs did not get sunburnt.

As well as having sunscreen rubbed on her, Piggy-Sue will be given plenty of water to drink during the summer months and will be able to cool off in a special mud wallow.

Mrs Press-McKenzie is proud of her part in Piggy-Sue's rescue and thrilled with how the pig has taken to her new life. "She wags her tail all the time."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/local/3195877/Piggy-Sue-wallows-in-freedom

The original Piggy-Sue story from last May....

Out of the crate and into the public eye

By KATHERINE NEWTON - The Dominion Post | 5:00AM - Friday, 22 May 2009

PRETTY, PRETTY PIGGY-SUE: Carolyn Press-McKenzie and Piggy-Sue who is sitting pretty after life in a stall.
— ROBERT KITCHIN/The Dominion Post.

A fortnight ago, Piggy-Sue was living in a sow stall in a barn housing thousands of other pigs.

Now she's a pig in muck after being sprung from the Reid piggery in Carterton by Carolyn Press-McKenzie, an Upper Hutt veterinary surgeon, animal trainer and animal sanctuary owner.

Piggy-Sue was "rescued" during an undercover operation for TVNZ's Sunday programme which uncovered disturbing images of pig farming.

The change in Piggy-Sue since had been "huge", Mrs Press-McKenzie said.

Despite being barely able to walk when she arrived, the pig has discovered rain for the first time after a life indoors. When the heavens open, she dashes outside. "At first she couldn't really walk particularly well. Now she does little gallops and frisky jumps," Mrs Press-McKenzie said.

After years in a cage, she still bears scars from the pressure sores left by the crate bars. But Mrs Press-McKenzie said the five-year-old was gaining confidence and was much more alert. "She's showing an interest in everything. She saw a dog for the first time and she didn't back away, she was excited about it."

Piggy-Sue's reactions to her new home, at Pakuratahi Farm Animal Sanctuary in Kaitoke, show how cruel it is to farm pigs in cages, she said. "She emotionally switched herself off in that cage. You take them out of that situation and you have an intelligent, vital being."

Mrs Press-McKenzie offered to buy Piggy-Sue as a front for the documentary team to gain access to the farm. She wore a microphone, and with a Sunday producer and camerman secretly recorded video and audio footage. "I was proud to be part of that," she said.

Piggy-Sue was bought for $600, paid for by the Sunday programme.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/farming/2431333/Out-of-the-crate-and-into-the-public-eye