Meet James Cromwell’s New ‘Babe’: A Rescued Piglet Who Fell Off a Meat Lorry

Succession star and PETA US Honorary Director James Cromwell has a new love in his life: a piglet who fell off a lorry as he was being taken to be fattened for slaughter. When Cromwell learned from PETA that the piglet, who was found scraped, bruised, and covered in mud, had been rescued, he just had to meet him. And he did—virtually—and named him Babe in honour of the film that inspired the actor to go vegan 28 years ago. Soon, Cromwell will help transfer Babe to Indraloka Animal Sanctuary, where he’ll be welcomed after receiving a clean bill of health.
“Having had the privilege of witnessing and experiencing pigs’ intelligence and inquisitive personalities while filming the movie Babe changed my life and my way of eating, and so I jumped at the chance to save this real-life Babe,” says Cromwell. “Every pig deserves to live in peace and joy at a sanctuary, choosing when to frolic, where to forage, and how to spend their time, yet few do.”

PETA points out that pigs are playful, intelligent, and friendly animals who are soothed by music, love playing ball, sleep together in “pig piles”, and even enjoy getting massages. In the global meat industry, which slaughters 1.5 billion pigs every year, their tails are chopped off, their teeth are cut with pliers, and the males may be castrated – all without painkillers. At the slaughterhouse, they’re hung upside down and bled to death.

Babe will join many pig pals as well as alpacas, chickens, cows, and others at the nearly 100-acre Indraloka Animal Sanctuary. Anyone interested in contributing to Babe’s lifetime care can support the sanctuary

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview, and offers a free vegan starter kit. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk