Farmer Serves Up Piglets As Sausages To Firefighters Who Saved Them

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- The big bad fire huffed and puffed, but it couldn't harm the piglets whose barn it turned down months ago, thanks to the firefighters who saved them.

It happened in the southwest England town of Wiltshire in February. BBC News reports that members of the Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service saved 18 piglets and two sows after 60 tons of hay caught fire.

And this week, as thanks, the manager of the farm saw fit to thank those firefighters with sausages made from the pigs they saved.

The move proved so controversial that the Facebook page for the fire station took down the post detailing the gift, and put up an apology.

A spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) criticized the exchange, telling BBC News the piglets were "no better off" after being saved.

"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," PETA's Mimi Bekhechi said.

The manager of the farm, Rachel Rivers, defended the gift.

"I gave those animals the best quality of life I could ever give until the time they go to slaughter and they go into the food chain," she said. "You do feel sad at the end of it."

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