A British farmer who sought help from emergency services to rescue her two piglets and two sows from a barn fire in February has become an internet celebrity for the kindness she showed the officials a few months later.
The livestock farmer returned bearing sausages made from the rescued animals, local media reports.
A total of 18 piglets and two sows survived the fire in Wiltshire.
Rachel Rivers arrived Pewsey fire station with sausages she made from the pigs about six months after that rescue operation at her barn in England which saw 60 tones of hay burn to ashes, the BBC confirmed.
According to the report, Rivers told the BBC that she made a promise to the firefighters and had to honor her words. She admitted telling them that she would bring some sausage from the pigs, which were reared for meat.
“I gave those animals the best quality of life I could ever give until the time they go to slaughter, and they go into the food chain,” she said.
Rivers added, “You do feel sad at the end of it… but to bring them down for [the firefighters] was a good way of saying ‘thank you’.”
The Pewsey fire station shared photos of the sausages, which have since been deleted, and thanked Rivers for the meat, according to the BBC.
The fire service saved these pigs bacon in February, now they’ve had them as sausages! pic.twitter.com/UyZmAYvMiz
— BBC Wiltshire (@BBCWiltshire) August 23, 2017
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) said the piglets were “no better off” for escaping the fire.
“We’ll be sending Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service packs of vegan sausages so that they can see how easy it is to truly be heroes for pigs – by sparing them all suffering,” said spokesman Mimi Bekhechi.
