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Saturday, April 26, 1997

'Piggy Camp' does its best to boost potbelly futures

By MIKE JACKSON The Dallas Morning News

ENNIS, Texas - Out on Chris and Robert Hinterman's farm, the Vietnamese potbellied pigs are finally safe. The pit bulls can't maul them, the butcher isn't allowed to come near and there's no city ordinance to boot them out.

Nicknamed "Piggy Camp," the farm is a refuge for more than 40 potbellied pigs that were once among the hottest exotic pets to set hoof on American soil.

As the potbellies' popularity waned in recent years, and the animals grew much larger than people expected, many pig owners began abandoning the pets, Ms. Hinterman said.

But some of the rejected swine from the Dallas-Fort Worth area have been taken in by the Hintermans and other members of the Metroplex Association of Potbellied Pig Enthusiasts.

"I adopted my first potbelly five years ago," said Ms. Hinterman, president of the 4-year-old organization. "Then I had six. Then I had eight."

Now, she and other members have about 80 pigs for which they would like to find homes, Ms. Hinterman said.

Adoptions have been few, Ms. Hinterman laments, but that's not the biggest problem. The potbellies eat, well, like pigs, and keeping them gets expensive.

Ms. Hinterman's 40 potbellies alone eat 250 pounds of pig feed a week, she said. That runs about $40, plus fruit, vegetables and Cheerios, the pigs' favorite snack. Veterinary care runs into hundreds.

"We pay for that out of our own pockets," said Ms. Hinterman, 39.

To raise money for the pigs' care, the organization planned its second annual Pig Fest this weekend at Andrew Brown Park, in Coppell.

The Hintermans are proud of their pig, Buddy, who plays a toy piano with his snout.

"It took me 40 minutes to teach him how to play," said Mr. Hinterman, 40. "What it takes a week for a dog to learn, a pig can learn in 20 minutes."

The Hintermans, who also shelter 13 dogs, have learned this through experience.

Fun aside, organization members hope to dispel a few myths about potbellies and teach some basics should anyone want to adopt one.

The biggest myth, which the organization calls a salesman's lie, is that potbellies stay small and cozy, about the size of a full-grown cat.

The truth is that they grow to about 150 pounds, Ms. Hinterman said. "People buy them when they're cute, but they don't want them anymore when they get that big," she said.

They're clean, Ms. Hinterman said, and they should be fed a special diet.

When they become an unexpected burden, owners often abandon them at animal shelters or along country roads, she said. And like a domestic dog or cat, a potbelly couldn't survive on its own.

Ellie Mae, a scarred potbelly the Hintermans got from the Dallas Animal Shelter 2 months ago, was mauled by a chow and a pit bull terrier.

Heidi, a black pig who was found stained green and wandering the streets of Ennis, was apparently the victim of a paintball-gun attack by teenagers.

It took two years, the Hintermans said, for Heidi to finally decide she could trust people.

Clearly, the Hintermans' pets trust them completely. The porkers follow the couple around a 10-acre enclosure like children behind the Pied Piper.

They follow the Hintermans right past the pens where 800-pound barnyard pigs are used to breed offspring for market.

They're happy-go-lucky. They'd shudder if they only knew.

"We eat pork," Ms. Hinterman confided. u ---

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