Rosangela dos Santos Lara went to market and bought a little piggie as a pet, but then it grew and grew and grew.
Now aged three, Lilica, the sow weighs 250 kilograms and gets through 5 kilograms of fruit and vegetables a day plus animal feed, eating away much of Rosangela's tight household budget.
She says the seller tricked her, but Lilica still sleeps on a mattress in the bedroom that the 59-year-old teacher shares with her husband Nelson, an unemployed fisherman in the Brazilian coastal town of Peruibe near Sao Paulo city.
Lilica quickly ate her way into becoming a 250-kilogram pig. ( Reuters: Amanda Perobelli )
"I bought her thinking she would be a mini pig, but she turned into a giant animal," Rosangela said, while tickling Lilica, who lay stretched out in front of the family sofa with cats and dogs clambering around her.
"She came to bring me joy. People call me crazy, but I just love animals."
Selling Lilica for meat would give her family's finances a major boost, but Rosangela isn't interested.
"Someone offered me 20,000 reais ($3,600) this week for her for slaughter, but she is not for sale."
PanickedPanpiper on December 11st, 2021 at 06:28 UTC »
There is no such thing as a mini-pig. Also, her choices are slaughter and eat it or keep it as a pet. She's chosen the pet route, and I guess she just has to live with the problem
Daimosthenes on December 11st, 2021 at 06:20 UTC »
Very common in aquarium hobby. People buy baby sharks and don't realize they are going to need much bigger tanks.
wills2003 on December 11st, 2021 at 05:34 UTC »
Flashback to the 80s potbellied pig craze fallout.