Unwanted livestock find homes at rescue farms

HAPPY AS A PIG IN MUD: Buncombe County Farm manager Don Collins cares for 18 pigs, who are all adoptable via Asheville Humane Society, at the county's barn in Black Mountain. Tiny tusks are visible on the snout of the pig named Otis, far left. Photo by Jessica Wakeman

Editor’s note: This story was reported and written before Tropical Storm Helene. Xpress followed up with sources after the storm for updates.

A few years ago, the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) asked Don Collins to come to a house in Woodfin. Collins arrived with one of his trailers, and he met Otis, a potbellied pig, living inside a yard with a chain-link fence.

Otis’ owner had bought the pig for his grandchildren. But the porcine pet had “gotten too big and [they] couldn’t care for him anymore,” Collins explains. So he loaded 350-pound Otis into a trailer and brought the pig to Buncombe County Farm in Black Mountain, where Collins is the manager. The farm is part of the Buncombe County Department of Health and Human Services.

Such is a common story for how pigs end up in Buncombe County’s care. When livestock is removed from someone’s home, it’s usually because the owner is incapable of caring for the animal properly, explains BCSO Animal Crimes Unit Cpl. Billy Ecklund. Though animal cruelty and neglect do occur, it’s more common that people are well-intentioned but get in over their heads by underestimating the animal’s needs.

‘Potbellied pig epidemic’

Recently the county has been awash in pigs needing homes. “We have a potbellied pig epidemic,” says Collins.

Unscrupulous breeders lie to customers about so-called “minipigs,” Collins explains. Minipigs are selectively bred to be smaller — anywhere from 50-150 pounds. But some breeders sell Vietnamese potbellied piglets that they claim are miniature pigs — and prospective buyers can’t tell the difference. When babies, “they’re all small and cute and cuddly,” he explains.

Then that piglet grows into a 200- to 300-pound potbellied pig, Collins explains. And a “meat” pig, meaning a breed raised for pork, can grow up to 500-600 pounds. (Collins advises potential pig adoptees to ask to see or meet the piglet’s mother and father first.)

Otis, whom an Xpress reporter met at his shady resting spot in the barn, has been living at Buncombe County Farm for four or five years since being picked up by Collins. “Poor little Otis,” he says. “Nobody wants to take a 400-pound pig to their house.”

Buncombe County Farm has 18 adoptable pigs, who Collins and his assistants James Hewitt, also known locally as the Black Mountain duck whisperer, and Jeff Lewis care for daily. The pigs eat Purina pig feed, occasionally supplemented by other foods — sandwiches to doughnuts to cans of fruit — donated by local shops.

The “potbellied pig epidemic” is presenting challenges. Some pig rescues are overwhelmed by surrendered pet pigs and are no longer accepting more, according to Collins, so now Buncombe County Farm is a de facto pig rescue. (Buncombe County Farm was not damaged by Tropical Storm Helene and no animals were harmed, Collins tells Xpress.)

The cost of feed is about $20,000 for all the pigs for a year, not including medical care, Collins estimates. A veterinarian visit can cost $2,000 to $3,000, depending on an animal’s health issues.

Despite their size, pigs are “excellent companion animals,” Collins says, noting that they are also very smart.

The pigs’ home was intended for rescued horses when BCSO Animal Control — also called the Animal Crimes Unit, which investigates allegations of animal cruelty, picks up strays and collects information about animal bites — built the barn 10 years ago. But then the pig population took over.

Luckily, there are many sanctuaries, rescues and working stables where horses can go when they need a new home.

Shannon Knapp, horse trainer and executive director of Heart of Horse, a nonprofit in Marshall, says many of the calls she receives are from aging owners who are “starting to recognize the physical toll of caring for horses,” particularly cleaning stalls and moving hay bales, she explains. Domesticated horses commonly live 25-30 years, she says.

Research first

Before adopting livestock, the animal rescue community implores people to do research.

Ecklund advises people to know the ordinances and laws about owning livestock and to check whether their homeowners associations restrict livestock.

The cost of livestock upkeep can be onerous. Some animals need hoof trimming by a farrier. And livestock veterinarians may have different pricing than people are used to with a cat or dog. “Most of the time, it’s like $200 just to do the site visit — just to show up,” explains Ecklund. “That doesn’t include anything they do on-site,” like administering medication or addressing injuries.

Jessica Silver, the Buncombe County Public Health Department’s environmental health program manager, encourages people to call her office and ask for information before adopting — or for help if livestock ownership isn’t working out. “We definitely try to get people connected to resources regardless of the breed or size,” she says. Her office handles several animal-related issues, including rabies outbreaks.

The wrong thing to do is let animals loose or leave them along the side of a road — something Collins has seen all too frequently during his lifetime.

He’s also seen a lot of species that need new homes. Buncombe County Farm’s guest list has included donkeys, cows, emus, llamas and minihorses.

Buncombe County contracts with the Asheville Humane Society (AHS) for the adoption of livestock, including horses, pigs, roosters and chickens. Adoptable livestock are posted on AHS’s website, and the nonprofit counsels prospective owners, explains Jen Walter, AHS director of operations.

The counseling is similar to that of adopting a dog or cat but will be a more in-depth conversation, especially for first-time pig or horse owners.

Counselors confirm that the person interested in adopting understands the animals’ nonnegotiable dietary and behavioral needs. For example, does the potential pig adopter know about rooting behavior? “If someone is looking to have a lush green lawn, then a pig might not be the best pet for them,” Walter says. Pig owners should also have adequate fencing because pigs are “escape artists,” she says.

Adopters must agree the animals will be pets and “will not be used for meat or human consumption,” Walter adds.

Investigating neglect

BCSO receives calls about livestock two or three times a week. Fowl — that is, chickens and ducks — prompt the most calls, Ecklund says. Oftentimes, an animal has simply wandered from home. But once livestock, including free-range fowl, leave the owner’s property, it is “running at large,” which is a Class 3 misdemeanor per North Carolina statute, Ecklund explains.

The public also contacts BCSO frequently about horses and cows, often because the animal escaped its pen or barn during a storm, Ecklund says.

Some calls pertain to neglect. The Animal Crimes Unit’s first step in an investigation is to drive by and look at the animal. Sometimes officers can confirm visually that an animal is not being neglected. “A lot of times, people don’t understand the different breeds of livestock and what they’re supposed to look like,” Ecklund explains. “You have your black Angus and your Herefords, which are very fat cattle, which are used for meat and stuff. And then you have Jersey cows, which have bones showing on their hips. But that’s just the way they’re bred.”

If the Animal Crimes Unit can’t see livestock during a drive-by, officers do a “knock and talk” to meet the owner, ask to see the animal and learn more about the animals’ circumstances. “Most of [the livestock owners] welcome us in because they understand that they’re not doing anything wrong,” Ecklund says.

The Animal Crimes Unit does encounter animals that need their hooves trimmed or that need veterinary care. “Most of the time with that, we will go with an ordinance violation, which is failure to provide vet care,” Ecklund says. “That requires the owner to have that care provided within a, like, 30-day window — a reasonable amount of time.”

Then there are the people who starve or physically abuse their livestock. In those cases, BSCO will conduct a seizure if the owner isn’t willing to hand over their rights to the animal “peacefully,”  which Ecklund says is the department’s goal. If needed, it will “go the search warrant route” to take possession.

The county is limited in its ability to rehouse some of the livestock that residents surrender. While roosters, chickens and ducks can go to the AHS and pigs go to the farm, other livestock typically require an introduction to Collins. A lifelong Western North Carolina resident who began raising horses at age 12, Collins works his connections to see who may be able to, say, adopt a goat.

“Mr. Collins might have other outlets, as far as farms that are willing to take the animal so that it’s not a seizure — it’s just [the owner] giving the animal to a farm,” Ecklund explains.

Collins personally conducts an assessment on each horse that may be surrendered or seized. The county’s goal is to encourage the horse’s owner to take better care of the animal. Still, horses do come into the county’s care “because people would just not adhere to instructions,” he says.

Collins endeavors to find the animal a caring home. He has also taken in sick or underfed horses at his home in Black Mountain, where he personally nurses them back to health.

A horse, of course

Heart of Horse Sense is caring for 27 horses on its 110 acres in Marshall. (All the animals were safe during Helene, says Knapp. The nonprofit received large donations of hay and horse grain, which she would like to disperse to the community and said interested parties should reach out.) 

In addition to aging horse owners, Knapp says she gets many calls from parents whose child has gone to college, and the parents don’t want to care for the horse. These horses are usually healthy, so Knapp refers the callers to Hope for Horses, a nonprofit rescue in Leicester with a horse matching program, to ensure a “good future.”

In addition to potential therapy horses for Heart of Horse Sense’s work conducting equine therapy with veterans, the nonprofit takes horses that are in “imminent danger” of death. Knapp says this means the horse’s owner says to her, essentially, the options are “you or the slaughterhouse, now.”

Oftentimes these horses have been starved. Sometimes they have been beaten by people who mistakenly believed they had to use physical violence to “break” horses, Knapp says.

She acknowledges that sometimes the most compassionate decision for an animal is to put it down because of its physical pain. But horses that have been starved or beaten can often be slowly nursed back to health and trained to trust humans again. That may take years.

What’s most important for people who need to relinquish a horse is to do research about its future home; some buyers will kill horses to sell their meat (laws on horse meat vary state by state). For this reason, people should not offer to give a horse “free to a good home,” Knapp warns. “Have a sense of where they’re going.”

Knapp also encourages horse owners to make financial preparations for a horse’s future, in the event the owner dies, and to include those wishes in a will. Owners need to “plan for your, and your horse’s, retirement,” Knapp says.

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About Jessica Wakeman
Jessica Wakeman was a reporter at Mountain Xpress from 2021-24. She has been published in Rolling Stone, Glamour, New York magazine's The Cut, Bustle and many other publications. She was raised in Connecticut and holds a Bachelor's degree in journalism from New York University. Follow me @jessicawakeman

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