A British Columbia resident who adopted a potbellied pig named Molly from the SPCA and then ate it has been banned from future SPCA adoptions.
Molly was one of 57 potbellied pigs to be seized following an animal cruelty investigation on Vancouver Island a year ago. SPCA staff say they spent months nursing the pigs back to health before they could be adopted.
Someone adopted Molly in January, but the SPCA has been informed the pig’s owner ate the animal last week.
Lorie Chortyk, a spokesperson for the B.C. SPCA said staff are "extremely upset" because they did everything in their power to give the pig a home where they thought it would be loved and cared for until it died naturally.
"Our staff conducted a thorough adoption counselling process," she said in a statement to CTV Vancouver. "The adopter gave assurances, verbally and in writing, that their intent was to keep the animal as a pet. Unfortunately it is a rare instance where an adopter blatantly lied."
The individual has been banned from adopting a pet from the 36 SCPA locations in British Columbia, but Chortyk said it’s the only course of action the organization can take.
"Because they were the legal owners of the animal after the adoption and it is not illegal in Canada to eat animals for food, we have no legal recourse to recommend any charges," she said.
MauiKehaulani on February 24th, 2018 at 19:22 UTC »
Can I just ask: How exactly did they find out he ate it?
AlmanzoWilder on February 24th, 2018 at 19:00 UTC »
His three adopted children could not be located for comment.
rspix000 on February 24th, 2018 at 18:58 UTC »
I can't find a link to any story, but a similar event happened to the captive bear in Idyllwild, California about 50 years ago. Bears are rare in those mountains and one nuisance bear was trapped and kept in a fenced area at the entrance to the town for years. The town leaders eventually wanted to cut costs and decided to put it up for adoption. A farmer from the valley below agreed to give it a good home but a couple of hard winters later the City discovered that the farmer had eaten it.