300-pound pig rescued from Los Angeles wildfires

Ellen Marie Bennett shared a plea with her Instagram followers on Wednesday amid wildfires in Los Angeles. Could someone, preferably someone with a spare trailer, help evacuate the approximately 300 pound pot-bellied pig?

“It's not an easy task because he's so heavy and so big,” she wrote.

The problem, named Oliver, was a rotund nine-year-old boar covered in coarse fur. Bennett, the founder of kitchenware brand Hedley & Bennett, adopted him as a 15-pound piglet in 2016. Since then, he has enjoyed snoozing and nibbling on peaches and strawberries.

As flames approached their home in Pasadena, Calif., on Tuesday night, Bennett and her husband, Casey Kaprow, loaded their two young children into their car and drove them to Glendale, away from the flames. Relocating Kaplow's unwieldy pet, which he estimates weighs nearly 200 pounds, will be even more difficult.

“That was one of our top priorities,” Kaprow said. “How do we get Oliver out of there?”

Wildfires that have raged through the Los Angeles area since Tuesday have forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate, claimed lives, destroyed landmarks and destroyed residential areas. The fires also pose a danger to animals, as pet owners flee to accommodation facilities that don't always accommodate pets.

Animal shelters in the region are stretched thin with hundreds of dogs and cats abandoned by evacuees. “I've never seen anything like this,” said Kevin McManus, public relations manager for Pasadena Humane, a shelter that adopted more than 180 animals within 24 hours.

It is especially difficult to find emergency accommodation for large animals such as horses or, for example, pigs weighing several hundred pounds. Some shelters recommended by the Los Angeles Department of Animal Services stipulate that they can only accept small animals. Pasadena Humane is already overstocked with large dogs and is looking for temporary foster homes to free up space.

Mr. Kaprow, founder of the media company Good Worldwide, considered taking Oliver to the nearby Rose Bowl Stadium, but heard that animals were not allowed. Bennett then posted on Instagram. “Once she put the explosion out there, people started calling and saying, 'Hey, we'd be happy to help,'” Kaprow said.

They learned that the Los Angeles Equestrian Center in Burbank still had space for larger animals. Bennett's mutual friend, radio producer Patti Rodriguez, offered to lend her a pickup truck for transportation.

Under smoky skies, Kaprow tried to coax Oliver out of the backyard using pig bait. With the help of Rodriguez's husband, the man lifted Oliver's hooves and the rest of his body into the car.

“He doesn't like being moved around or bossy at all,” Kaprow said.

Oliver quickly became something of a celebrity at the equestrian center, and Kaprow said he was the only pig in the stable. He smelled the wooden pens and was pampered by the volunteers. There was blue tape on the door of his pen with a heart scrawled next to his name.

Kaprow and Bennett don't know when they will be able to go home with Oliver. They had to evacuate again Wednesday night as the fire moved closer to Glendale. Bennett told her Instagram followers that day that her mother's home in Altadena had burned down.

“Our families and communities are devastated,” she wrote.

In another post, she said she was relieved Oliver had been safely relocated. Hundreds of commenters who had never met the couple thanked her for the piece of good news.