Piglets Saved From Fire End Up As Dinner

Eighteen piglets and two sows were saved from a serious barn fire in Milton Lilbourne, England, in which 66 tons of hay were destroyed. As a thank you, farm manager Rachel Rivers gifted the local firefighters — who extinguished the blaze — with sausages made from the piglets they'd rescued.

Though the pigs were being raised for meat anyway, and lived another six months after the fire before being turned into sausage, the gift attracted media coverage and eventually the attention of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

PETA spokeswoman Miki Bekhechi told BBC News, "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."

But farm manager Rivers does not regret the tongue-in-cheek 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 told BBC News.

The firemen did appreciate the gift and thanked the farmer for her generosity, posting photos of their sausage barbecue on their to Facebook page. The images have since been taken down. "In regard to a recent post on this page," the firefighters wrote on their page, "we recognize that this has caused offence to some. We apologize for this and as such have removed the post."

If you are one of the offended and interested in becoming a vegan, PETA will match you with a mentor.