The Legacy of Esther The Wonder Pig
She gave us an insight into the individuals behind the food products
Today, the sad news was published that Esther The Wonder Pig had died in her sleep at the age of 11 after years of battling cancer. She had charmed many hundreds of thousands of people through the social media accounts controlled by her guardians Steve Jenkins and Derek Walter.
Even though Esther is no longer physically with us, her memory and legacy will live forever. Esther is immortal, and we will continue to show the world that all animals deserve to be loved just like she was.
The subject of several books and figurehead to a sanctuary (that featured dogs, cats, turkeys etc) many followers have expressed their grief. She transcended animal rights circles and many mainstream sources have reported her passing. This is interesting because she will sit alongside adverts that push pig flesh products taken from individuals every bit as sentient and likeable as she was.
One and a half billion pigs are bred and killed for food every single year and many more chickens suffer the same fate. The case is long settled that we don’t need animal products for our health so all of this huge amount of generated suffering is unnecessary.
As we know, the media tends to ignore the many billions of farmed animals who are exploited out of view in the animal agriculture industry. They constitute an inconvenient truth. Meanwhile they tend to fetishise any individual that escapes the farm or slaughterhouse as a runaway that they wish well.
This is cognitive dissonance run amok, a recognition that the escapee or rescued animal is better off now. Esther’s guardians had a Road to Damascus moment in 2018 when they were cooking bacon alongside their beloved 600lbs “micro pig” and as such now promote veganism. She has had a similar impact on her near 580,000 Instagram followers with many going on to connect the dots.
Pigs are especially intelligent (reportedly moreso than the dogs we love) and therefore make good examples for displaying a sympathetic image to the public. However, the other traditionally farmed animals are sentient beings too and the least we can do is not demand that their unnecessary suffering take place. That will require the removing of demand for animal products and making different choices.
