Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 9, 1994 TAG: 9411090087
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium
She's so fat, her abdomen scrapes the ground when she walks.
She's so fat, rolls of fat from her forehead have sunk down into her eyelids so she can't see.
Pinkie Starlight is fat. In fact, she's a real pig.
Animal control officers removed Pinkie Starlight from her Norfolk home Tuesday morning and have charged her owner, Virginia Hudgins, 39, with neglect.
Pinkie was severely in need of veterinary care, they say.
``Usually Vietnamese potbellied pigs run between 65 and 100 pounds,'' said Humane Officer Mark Kumpf. ``This pig weighed about 200 pounds. It's ... believe it or not ... an obese pig.''
Pinkie Starlight stood - when she did stand up - at about 18 inches at the shoulder.
Kumpf said Hudgins had a permit to have the pig, but ``Having a permit doesn't give you permission to abuse or neglect an animal.''
It's neglect when a person refuses to heed a veterinarian's warnings that an animal's weight is dangerous to its health, Kumpf said.
Officers found the pinkish, white pig lying on a small mat near a window in the back bedroom.
``We tried to lift her eyelids to see if there was any eye matter underneath, but the fat had hardened so much we couldn't get them open,'' Animal Control Officer Christina Roeske said.
Poor Pinkie Starlight also had 2-inch toenails, Roeske said.
Pinkie was taken to Midway Veterinary Hospital in Chesapeake, where she was examined by Dr. M.W. Myers, who had seen Pinkie as a patient earlier this year.
``I told her owner then that she needed to put Pinkie on a diet,'' Myers said. ``But I also know that pigs don't like to have their food cut down, especially when they've been overfed in the past, and they can be pretty vocal about their dislikes.''
Vietnamese potbellied pigs are notorious eaters, said Myers, because in their homeland their food is mostly roughage - high fiber, low calorie.
``Here in the United States, the most overfed [human] population in the world, they get high-energy, high-quality food,'' Myers said. ``But their system keeps telling them to eat, eat, eat. They've really got to be watched.''
Animal control officers said Myers will be boarding Pinkie at a farm in Chesapeake.
Myers has already cut Pinkie's nails. The next order of business: He's putting the pig on a diet.
by CNB