Saving Wilbur

In May 2005, Animals Australia received a call from Parmount Pictures' Executive Producer, Bernie Williams, who was working on the set of a movie being shot in Victoria, Australia. He had received a leaflet from one of our supporters detailing our SaveBabe campaign to help Australian pigs and thought we might be able to help him with a bit of a problem!

The movie was Charlotte’s Web, the ‘problem’ was 42 homeless ‘Wilburs’, and the result was a wonderful partnership devoted to ensuring that all Charlotte’s Web ‘Wilburs’ would live long, happy lives.

Forty-two piglets were used in the movie, and Animals Australia, in association with Paramount Pictures, found every single piglet a loving, permanent home.

In the Where Are They Now feature on the Charlotte’s Web DVD you will see some of the stars of the movie – Alice, Daisy and Lily - as they are now – happy and enjoying life! These pigs are very lucky – had they not been chosen to be movie stars their lives would have been very, very different.

Saved from what?

Whilst our ‘Wilburs’ are living happy lives full of foraging, wallowing and sunbathing, around the world hundreds of millions of these sensitive, curious, intelligent animals are kept in barren, overcrowded conditions devoid of the opportunity to express any natural instinct. They are killed when they are just a few months old so that we can eat their meat. Breeding females (‘sows’) are kept in solitary confinement for their entire lives in cages so small that they can’t even turn around. This happens in most countries around the world, and it probably happens near you.

Condemning millions of these animals – who are every bit as intelligent and individual as your cat and dog – to miserable, barren lives only then to be killed and eaten is wrong, don’t you think?

But it doesn’t have to be this way…

Charlotte’s Web is E. B. White’s wonderful story of how a spider – the eponymous Charlotte – saves Wilbur from being turned into bacon. Having been saved from early death once already – by Fern, the farmer’s daughter who saved Wilbur from being killed as the runt of the litter – Wilbur knows how much he has to live for, and how much he doesn’t want to die:

“I don’t want to die… I want to stay alive… I want to breathe the beautiful air and lie in the beautiful sun”.

Wilbur’s plea is one that, if we listened, would be heard from pigs around the world. Like E.B. White said in his book, “Perhaps if people talked less, animals would talk more”.

In the Charlotte's Web DVD featurette ‘Where are they now?’ you will see how happy all of our movie stars are now. We believe that all pigs should be as happy as Alice, Daisy, Lily and all the other ‘Wilburs’.

 

How you can help pigs:

1. Support our SaveBabe.com campaign

Animals Australia’s SaveBabe campaign has been educating people about the plight of factory-farmed pigs for more than 2 years, giving people the information they need in order to make compassionate choices when they shop.

Our Pro Pig Pledge is the perfect way toshow your commitment to helping pigs. Click here to make the Pro Pig Pledge today!

By donating to our campaign, you can help us to inform even more people about the plight of pigs. We want to change the way Australian pigs live – please support our campaign to ensure that all pigs are as lucky as Wilbur! Click here to donate to our SaveBabe.com campaign.

2. Speak up for pigs!

Whether you’re Australian or not, you can show your commitment to helping pigs by making the Pro Pig Pledge.

However, there is more you can do in your own community to help pigs. Please tell your friends and family about the plight of these intelligent animals, and inform them about how they too can help to end the suffering of animals. Click here for even more ways to help.