In nature, a mother’s love can be incredibly powerful. Animals are extraordinary when it comes to their offspring. Instinctively, they will do everything to protect their young.
That was the case when a female pig escaped from a meat factory to save her babies. And it turned out to be the best decision the animal could make.
Anna Aston was walking her dog in a forest in Nottinghamshire, England when she noticed something unusual: a pig nursing her newborns.
“I knew it wasn’t a wild boar, they looked like regular piglets,” Anna told the BBC. “I thought, ‘This can’t be right.’ You don’t find pigs like this in a forest.”
After noticing the strange sight, she contacted an animal organization. Jon Beresford, the director of the organization, determined that the pig had escaped from a meat factory.
It was as if the animal had escaped to give birth in a safer place to protect her babies.
“It’s like her motherly instinct knew she had to get away from there with her babies, and that’s what she did,” Jon told the BBC.
“Her babies looked well, but she was thin and couldn’t eat because she had a ring through her nose,” she told The Dodo.
They named the pig Matilda. The rescuers realized she needed help but didn’t want to send her back to the meat factory. So they started a campaign to release Matilda and her babies to be taken to a safe haven.
And they succeeded. The factory agreed to release the pigs, and Matilda and her babies are now in the caring hands of the animal shelter.
“Matilda and her children enjoyed their first night of freedom,” they write on Facebook. “She’s such a good mother to them, now she doesn’t have to worry about their fate anymore.”
Unfortunately, one of the pigs has since died of a hernia, a common condition in young pigs.
But Matilda and her eight other babies are in excellent health and are living their best lives.
“Matilda continues her routine, feeding her babies, wallowing in mud, grazing, and saying hello to other pigs and cows,” another employee wrote.
We are so glad that Matilda is now safe. Her motherly instinct is to protect her young!
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