David Thompson for Action News First
Posted on Friday, April 16, 2010 2:57:27 PM by Shade t'houth
Animal rights activists improve pig's quality of life.
The surgical veterinary group at Michigan State University wasn't sure what to make of the request given to them by a local animal rights group.
Upset that pigs can't look up towards the sky, and convinced that pigs have an inherited interest in astronomy, the group asked the University if it could perform a surgery to allow the pig to look upwards. After verifying that the request was not a joke, an agreement was met.
The surgery, where veterinary surgeons shave down the transverse process of specific bones in the pig's spine proved to be at least as difficult as expected.
In the end, two brave pigs lost their life for a chance at seeing the sky before the third surgery, on the adopted swine "female person," was a success.
Female person can now look up to roughly 1-2 arcsec above the tree line and see a number of important stars.
When asked how Female person is doing, a spokesperson for the group said "Great! She has trouble tilting her head downwards now, so we had to build a special trough that is elevated and releases food from the bottom so that Female person can eat without tilting her head downward. She loves it!"
When asked how the group felt about two pigs losing their life so that Female person can become the first pig to "look to the stars," the spokesperson paused and reflected on the circumstances.
"If we can give even ONE pig the chance to become an observational astronomer; something no pig has ever had the opportunity to become, it was worth the sacrifice."
Female person, named Babe by its previous owners, was adopted last summer by the Columbus branch of "Saving Helpless and Injured Things." Believing the name "Babe" to be sexist, the swine was renamed as Female person, but will still answer to either name.
