Because I know you guys love inspiring and heartwarming content, I will serve you up a hearty dish of inspiration for today: a bunch of firefighters in the UK saved some piglets from a fire, and then ate the same piglets. Now they’re saying sorry for doing that.
Back up a moment. What happened?
A Wiltshire farmer whose piglets were saved from a barn fire back in February served up the very same pigs as sausages to the firefighters to saved them six months later. The farmer, Rachel Rivers, promised she was going to do it at the time and – well, she bloody well did it, didn’t she?
Here’s a picture of the fire in question, via the BBC twitter:
UPDATE: 18 piglets and 2 sows were rescued from the barn fire near Pewsey this morning which caught alight overnight. pic.twitter.com/HUVizn6KoP
— BBC Radio Wiltshire (@BBCWiltshire) February 21, 2017
And here’s a truly adorable little BBC video commemorating the occasion.
The fire service saved these pigs bacon in February, now they’ve had them as sausages! pic.twitter.com/UyZmAYvMiz
— BBC Radio Wiltshire (@BBCWiltshire) August 23, 2017
As you might expect, some people found this particular transaction somewhat ghastly. Vegetarians and vegans, obviously, but even others are a bit weirded out by it. “What a dreadful story,” wrote one social media user. “Lovely that they saved the pigs but why publish their demise? Grim.”
“Could she not just say thanks!” wrote another. “What’s wrong with a box of Roses?”
The firefighters at Pewsey fire station were initially pretty chuffed with their meaty reward. At least according to a statement they posted on Facebook:
Exactly six months and one day since firefighters rescued 18 piglets from a fire, we got to sample the fruits of our labours from that February night.
Huge thank you to Rachel Rivers for dropping them off for us to sample. Highly recommended by Pewsey fire station crew and if any one of our followers is having a bank holiday BBQ this weekend then check out these sausages, they are fantastic.
They later deleted the post after it received shitloads of backlash. “In regard to a recent post on this page,” they posted in a new statement. “We recognise that this has caused offence to some – we apologise for this and as such have removed the post.”
I’m personally no vegan and am not offended by the eating of the piglets, but it’s bloody grim. Something about it doesn’t sit quite right.
