A Pig Paradise, Deep in the Heart of Texas
At Central Texas Pig Rescue, pigs rescued from food lots and testing facilities are able to live out their lives in leisure and love
I drive down a dusty central Texas road and turn at the gate for Central Texas Pig Rescue (CTPR). A pair of inquisitive goats greet me, so I hop out of my Honda to close the gate before the animals can make a break. Volunteers bustle around the property before I meet CTPR managing members Tracey Stabile and Dan Illescas. (The third managing member is Shanda Harris, who moved to Texas from Kansas in 2018 with her 13 sanctuary pigs called Misfits of Oz.)
Since childhood, Illescas held whimsical notions of walking a pet pig on a leash like a dog. As an adult, lllescas had this illusion shattered when he visited a mama pig and her babies at a backyard animal rescue outside of Austin, Texas. “It was nothing like going to meet a mama dog,” he says. “They’re terrified. They want nothing to do with you. They don’t want to be held. When you go see a litter of piglets and you walk into their pen, they will run away from you so fast.”
“We have an animal in front of us with four legs, a tail that wags, can be walked on a leash and will sit for treats…
