Rescuing pet pigs at Dandelion Acres in Pictou County

The thing about pigs is that they grow.

As the longtime companion of a once-Halifamous pot-bellied pig named Erik, Jessica Arseneault knew that.

But many of those who got in on the trend of adopting pigs as pets over recent years, didn’t.

“I’d walk Erik around in parks around the city and I couldn’t walk three minutes without someone stopping and saying, ‘it’s a pig,’” remembered Arseneault on Thursday.

“Then it became a fad, celebrities were having them. People thought they would stay small.”

But they don’t.

Despite being called “micro-pigs” or “miniature pigs,” the pot-bellied and Juliana breeds and their various crosses can grow to weigh anywhere from 36 to about 90 kilograms.

As those cute little pigs began outgrowing the lives of those who’d adopted them, Arseneault and her partner Emilie Pece began getting calls.

“People knew how to play on our heartstrings,” said Arseneault.

This is a story of how you go from one pet pig, to 60.

Then there’s the 16 ducks, five rescued goats, chickens and a few dogs that also call Dandelion Acres Homestead and Rescue in Pictou County home.

The pair never intended to be operating an animal rescue service in rural Nova Scotia.

Arseneault was in the Navy and Pece worked as a nanny.

But as people began looking for new homes for pigs that had seemed like great pets when they were little, they found nobody else wanted them either.

And Pece and Arseneault couldn’t bear to hear of the pigs getting eaten (a common threat).

So, one pig led to 15 rescue pigs in a yard in the city.

Renovicted and needing a home to accommodate their growing family of animals, they bought a home with land last March in Pictou County.

Dandelion Acres was born.

The pigs kept coming, as did other animals.

They’ve put up fences, added stalls and baby barns, and developed a relationship with the Atlantic Veterinary College in Prince Edward Island that sees them taking pigs there to be neutered or spayed.

They rehome all the animals they can — but they require a contract be signed that includes, amongst other caveats of care, that they not be eaten. Those they can’t rehome will get to live out their natural lives at Dandelion Acres.

“There’s some donations but right now we’re funding it pretty much out of pocket,” said Pece.

Arseneault, now a veteran, got a job in New Glasgow and Pece is pretty well full time working with the animals.

It was not the life they planned.

But they like it.

And they like the pigs.

“A lot of (people) who have pigs say they’ll never have cats or dogs again,” said Arseneault.

“They’re very emotional beings, so they’re very in tune with your emotions. If I’m sad and I cry, one of the pigs is going to come and try to cuddle me on the couch. They are amazing.”