'Sampling the fruits of our labour': Firefighters eat sausages made from piglets they rescued
A litter of piglets rescued by fire fighters have been served as sausages to their saviours six months after their rescue.
Fire fighters rescued 18 piglets from a fire when 60 tonnes of hay went ablaze in Wiltshire, in southwest England in February.
Deciding to reward the Pewsey Fire Station for saving the pigs’ bacon, farmer Rachel Rivers thanked them by giving the team sausages made from the piglets.
The Pewsey Fire Station went to Facebook to show their enjoyment for the “fantastic” bangers.
“Highly recommended by Pewsey fire stations (sic) crew and if anyone of our followers is having a bank holiday bbq this weekend then check out these sausages,” the post read with photos of the steaming hot meat.
But a number of complaints has seen the fire fighters remove the post and apologise.
“In spite of dedicating yourselves to save human lives, it is shameful you can't make the connection with animals. They have the exact same right to live as us, the exact same will to live as us and feel pain, suffering, joy and all of the other emotions we feel,” one user commented.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) said the piglets were “not better off” for escaping the fire and intended on sending the team an alternative to pork sausages, according to the BBC.
"We'll be sending Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service packs of vegan sausages so that they can see how easy it is to truly be heroes for pigs - by sparing them all suffering," spokesman Mimi Bekhechi said.
Ms Rivers defended the gift saying she gave the pigs “the best quality of life” she could before they went to the slaughter.
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"You do feel sad at the end of it... but to bring them down for [the fire fighters] was a good way of saying 'thank you',” she said.
The farm’s owner Canon Gerald Osbourne said the death of an animal for food was “an inevitable part of farming”.
