Animal Welfare Professionals

Hello,

I manage a farm animal rescue. I'm not sure if I can be included in this group. 

We take in a lot of potbelly pigs. We try to educate people about these intelligent animals, but so many people get them without doing the homework. 

Any ideas on how to make people understand that these animals aren't for everyone? They will get large. At least 100 lbs. 

#EducationandTraining

------------------------------
Marcie Bunting
Co-founder
Billy's New Hope Barn, Inc.
PA
------------------------------

Hi Marcie,

We run a a farm and exotic animal sanctuary and come across the same thing with many of the species we take in, including pigs. We try sharing facts about the animals at events and on social media. Unfortunately I don't think this is enough  and would love to hear others ideas as well. 

------------------------------
Lisa Burn
Co-founder/VP
Farmhouse Animal & Nature Sanctuary
Myakka City, FL
https://farmhousesanctuary.org
------------------------------

I don't work with farm animals now, but I used to work at a shelter that took in a lot of farm animals, and one thing they did was host an event all about pigs. They had activities, vegetarian food trucks, and lots of educational content about pigs and their needs. Obviously I can't speak to the overall impact it had on the community, but it was a very well-attended event and it got lots of kids involved. 

------------------------------
Kate Rachiele
Pet Program & Operations Administrator
Willow Domestic Violence Center
Rochester, NY
------------------------------

This message was posted by a user wishing to remain anonymous

I don't do farm animal rescue - however, as person who had some land and sheep, we ended up with other assorted animals. If someone wanted to take any of them, we had them come out and work with the animals for 3 days. Made them get a better idea how big they might get, how rambunctious they could be, and how heavy a 3wire bale of hay was. We did something similar in the open admission County shelter, but we called it sort of a 'come along' volunteering for 3 or 4 days to see what some of these big dogs were like before they adopted. It was not a program - I'd say it wasn't even sanctioned, but it was a suggestion we'd make before some kind but clueless person was seriously checked out for adoption. We got a couple good vols out of it, and got some of the others to  scale down their expectations to someone they could handle. Sometimes you might offer to let them learn more by working with you.