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Piglets served up as sausage to the firefighters who rescued them

Farm manager Rachel Rivers thanked the fire department for rescuing her 18 piglets and two sows from a barn fire with sausage from the same animals

By FireRescue1 Staff

WILTSHIRE, England — Firefighters who rescued piglets and sows from a barn fire were rewarded with sausages made from the same animals by a farmer.

BBC reported that farm manager Rachel Rivers thanked Pewsey Fire Station for saving the 18 piglets and two sows by giving them the sausage. The firefighters grilled them up at a barbeque.

The animals, who were raised for meat, were given a six-month stay of execution after being rescued from the fire. However, they were eventually slaughtered and delivered to the fire station.

“I’m sure vegetarians will hate this,” Rivers said.

The firefighters were thrilled and said the sausages were “highly recommended.”

“We can tell no porkies, the sausages were fantastic,” a spokesman said.

PETA said the piglets were “no better off” after the firefighters rescued them.

“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,” PETA spokesman Mimi Bekhechi said.

“An inevitable part of farming is the death of an animal which gives us the food to eat,” the farm’s owner, Canon Gerald Osbourne, said.

“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,” Rivers said. “You do feel sad at the end of it, but to bring them down for [the firefighters] was a good way of saying thank you.”

The firefighters originally posted a photo of the sausages on their Facebook page, but later took it down.

“In regard to a recent post on this page, we recognize that this has caused offense to some – we apologize for this and as such have removed the post,” the department wrote on Facebook.

https://twitter.com/BBCWiltshire/status/900224854393200640?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Fstory%2Fnews%2Fnation-now%2F2017%2F08%2F23%2Fpigs-rescued-fire-later-served-sausage-firefighters-who-rescued-them%2F592822001%2F

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