Funny gift for a housewarming, and a Marseillais would have done without its discovery.
When moving into a house located in Allauch (Bouches-du-Rhône), Philippe discovered no fewer than ten pigs abandoned on his new property, La Provence reported this Wednesday, March 6.
The previous owner of the premises had indicated that she would collect two pets on the day of signing with the notary of the sale.
It was the next day that Philippe took over the place, delighted to have bought this house with vast land for his horses.
While he was walking around the owner, he saw several animals: ten Vietnamese pigs, each weighing around a hundred kilos!
Abandoned without food or water
The ten pigs had been abandoned by the former occupant of the house, without water or food.
This breed of domestic dwarf pig is typical of Southeast Asia and a specimen can weigh up to 150 kg, despite being smaller than its European cousin.
Faced with the abandonment of pigs, a chain of solidarity was set up to take care of them as quickly as possible.
The former occupant of the house had housed horses for several years on the site, so one of the riders who had her mare there offered to come regularly to feed the pigs.
Not enough anesthetic to put them all to sleep
Animal rights associations were notified accordingly and an evacuation operation was organized with the help of agents from Allauch town hall, not without difficulty.
Around thirty people mobilized to try to get the pigs into a horse trailer.
“Arriving on the ramp, they turned back, forcing their way,” a neighbor told our colleagues from La Provence.
It took the administration of a tranquilizer to finally overcome the animals' ill will, but it was not enough to put them all to sleep.
Only five were able to be put to sleep, due to a lack of sufficient quantity of anesthetic: “I don't have enough product for everyone,” admitted Luca Tripepi, veterinarian in Aubagne and in charge of the intervention.
The other five pigs must be taken care of in the coming days.