By SUZANNAH COUCH | The Brown County Democrat
For The Republic
VAN BUREN TWP. — Pig rescue organizations from across the country are teaming up to find new homes for more than 60 pigs at the center of a neglect case on Becks Grove Road.
The Indy Pig Rescue Facebook page was created at the beginning of June to start collecting donations and organizing volunteers to remove the animals and find them new homes. Rescue organizations from Tennessee, South Carolina, Kansas, Colorado and Indiana have all stepped up to help.
The volunteers began work this week to remove the pigs from property owned by Roy Fish, 65, and Penney Carey, 50, both of 8571 W. County Road 275S, Columbus. In February, Fish and Carey were charged in Brown Circuit Court with two counts each of cruelty to an animal, both Class A misdemeanors.
A report filed in February by Animal Control Officer Amanda Sisson included descriptions of nearly 90 animals’ living conditions, including inadequate shelter, deep mud and muck, and no visible food or water.
As of June 5, the rescue group had raised nearly $16,500 to help cover the cost to move the animals, build shelters for them and get water to them. Land in Noblesville has been donated as temporary housing for the pigs.
Once there, all of the pigs will be seen by a vet, spayed or neutered and microchipped. Health certificates and blood work will also be done to allow the pigs to cross state lines to their forever homes.
“This is what we do,” pig rescuer Paula Davis said.
For more on this story, see Wednesday’s Republic and Brown County Democrat.
