
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 16, 1994                   TAG: 9411160144
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

OBESE PET PIG CARRIES WEIGHT ON TALK SHOWS

A pet pig whose owner was charged with letting it get too fat has become the topic of talk shows about how far the government can intrude into the lives of people and their pets.

Pinky Starlight is an overweight Vietnamese potbellied pig. Norfolk officials charged her owner, Virginia Hudgins, with cruelty last week, saying she ignored a veterinarian's orders that the pig's obesity was dangerous to its health.

Pinky's picture subsequently appeared in newspapers around the country. Since then, she's been mentioned by radio commentator Charles Osgood, talk show host Rush Limbaugh and the ``Tonight'' show's Jay Leno.

Pinky is 18 months old, stands about 18 inches tall and weighed about 200 pounds - more than twice what experts say she should - when she was brought in by animal control officers Nov. 8.

Hudgins faces a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.

``I want to know one thing,'' a caller to a radio talk show in Norfolk said Friday. ``If they can take a pig away because it's obese, can they lock me up because I'm too fat?''

Another caller asked, ``If they charged this pig's owner with cruelty to animals because the pig was fat, are they going to start charging parents of chubby kids with child abuse?''

by CNB