A Florida couple who received a pig at a state truthful auction, intending to save it from the slaughterhouse, found the animal can be killed anyway and they had spent $4,700 on its meat.
Meg and Eric Weinberger, who run the Rescue Life sanctuary in Palm Beach Gardens, insist officers from the South Florida Fair gave no notification that they were bidding in a “terminal” auction of livestock raised solely for processing.
They imagine however haven’t been ready to affirm that the pig they fell in love with, named Bella B Swine by the teenager who raised it, has now been killed. They say truthful managers instructed them they were solely entitled to the 186lbs of meat.
“It did not say it was a slaughter–only auction, otherwise we’d have turned around and walked away,” Meg Weinberger mentioned.
“They said it was state law that the animal had to be slaughtered, but other fairs in Florida allow auction winners to take the animals with them. You can keep the meat, donate the meat or take the animal home.”
Weinberger mentioned she known as the Florida division of agriculture after the truthful refused to run her bank card, and established {that a} personal sale was doable. But truthful officers weren’t , she mentioned.
“I waited six hours until the end of the auction, and this lady walks in and says, ‘That’s the way it is, it’s a termination sale,’” she mentioned.
She mentioned she known as the slaughterhouse in a last-ditch try to save the hog, however “they called me back and said they weren’t willing to lose their contract with the state fair over one pig.”
Victoria Chouris, president and chief government of the South Florida Fair, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Chouris conceded to the Palm Beach Post that the auction registration kind didn’t point out the pigs can be processed for meals, however that its web site did. On Thursday, the truthful’s market auction handbook was inaccessible on-line.
“We always assume bidders are familiar with the rules and review them on our website. We will revise the registration form to make it clear that this is a terminal auction,” Chouris instructed the Post, including that the truthful had performed such auctions for many years.
Most pigs at the truthful promote for about $1,900, the Post mentioned. Weinberger mentioned she and her husband were keen to pay extra to assist youngsters getting a primary style in farming by taking part in a 4-H agriculture program, elevating the animals for auction.
She mentioned {the teenager} who raised Bella B Swine from a piglet, a 16-year-old lady, was upset by the dispute and had taken down an Instagram web page used to chronicle the animal’s development.
“She’s been through so much,” Weinberger mentioned, including that she and her husband made certain the youth obtained your complete $4,700.
Chouris told CBS Miami the meat can be donated to charity.
“We are all learning from this experience,” she mentioned.
Becky Brashear, the truthful’s director of enterprise improvement, instructed the Post a non-public sale was not doable as a result of the pigs were not raised to be with different animals.
Weinberger dismissed the declare, saying she suspected the truthful didn’t need to promote it was conducting slaughter auctions for public relations causes.
“I know people eat meat, eat bacon, but they don’t want to know that the pig they just saw at the fair is the one that’s going to be on their plate,” she mentioned.