Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 6, 1993 TAG: 9307060009
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
They get two square meals a day, lots of leisure time, six daily workouts to stretch the ol' hambones, and an occasional cool shower to beat the heat.
They get Oreo cookies every day.
And they never, ever wind up on a breakfast plate next to the eggs and hash browns.
Such is the life of "Oinkle Sam," "Hammy Faye Bacon," "Roseanne Boar" and the five other racing pigs that are pleasing the crowds this year at the Salem Fair and Exposition.
"These guys never go to the bacon factory - as far as we know," said Randy Ross. He and his wife, Sharon, run one of 11 touring shows for the Florida-based Robinson's Racing Pigs.
Over the past nine years, Robinson's pigs have gained near-global fame (they have appeared in seven international publications) for their mad dashes around a race track. All for the love of the chocolate cookie and creamy filling.
"Pigs like anything sweet. They have a sweet tooth," said Ross, who has been with the show from the beginning.
Before each race, Sharon Ross places a whole Oreo cookie and crumbles another one into a trough at the end of the track. The winning pig gets the whole cookie.
"The losers just get the crumbs," Ross said. The Rosses swear the pigs know the difference.
The couple has eight pigs with them at the Salem Fair. Four are black, full-grown miniature Guinea Essex pigs, weighing about 45 pounds each. They'll run the whole season.
The other four are your average Yorkshires - white, weighing between 50 and 60 pounds each at 4 months old.
"These guys will do about two more fairs, and then we'll have to get new ones," Ross said. The hotter it gets, and the heavier the pigs get, the slower they run, he explained.
The four Yorkshires will retire to Robinson's Picnic Farm, where they'll eventually reach up to 600 pounds each. They are donated to 4-H clubs around the country. The miniature black pigs are sold as pets, Ross said.
On the road, the pigs live in a 5-by-10-foot pen in a trailer. An overhead electric fan runs constantly and Ross hoses them off a few times during hot afternoons.
"Every once in a while, we'll give them one [an Oreo] just as a treat," he said.
The pigs go through 100 pounds of feed every three days and a pack of Oreos a day.
Ross said the show's owners once tried to get Nabisco, makers of the all-American Oreo, to sponsor the racing pigs. The company didn't want its name associated with swine, he said.
To a farmer, Ross said, the pigs aren't worth much. "To us, they're irreplaceable, because we have to train them."
Training takes place at the Florida farm when the pigs are wee 4-week-old piglets. For eight to 12 hours a day, seven days a week for two weeks, the Rosses build trust.
They get in the pigpen. They talk to the pigs. They walk them around a track. Then they start putting cookies at the gate - and the pigs catch on real quick, Sharon Ross said.
"The running part, they do that on their own."
Pigs are smart, say the Rosses, who promote the species on their personal attire. He wears a snout-shaped pin on his black cowboy hat; she wears a T-shirt with three pigs in bows.
Pigs are very responsive. When Ross moves toward the feed bucket in the trailer, the eight pigs break out in a deafening chorus of squeals and grunts, and they rear up on their hind legs and foam at the mouth.
The same thing happens when they hear their theme music come over the loudspeaker. They know the race is about to begin and there's an Oreo cookie out there . . .
by CNB