Saving Their "Bacon"
Shortly after Jackie started her new position at PETA,
she received e-mails from Leonor "Leo" Armas and Natasha Patterer, students
at Coral Reef Senior High School in Miami, Fla. who were upset that the
school's Future Farmers of America Club (FFA) were raising a pig�callously
named "Bacon"�to be auctioned off for slaughter in order to generate funds
for the school.
Leo, Natasha, and many other students had grown
attached to the pig and were determined to see her in a sanctuary instead of
a slaughterhouse. With Jackie's guidance, the girls and their friends spoke
with the school principal, wrote letters to the local media, and worked to
raise funds to send her to a sanctuary.
Leo gave an impassioned speech before the Coral Reef
School Board on March 17, 2004 and pleaded for the pig's life. Frank Cobo, a
sympathetic board member, was so moved by Leo's words, he donated the $900
opening bid needed to buy "Bacon" and promised to help introduce a policy
prohibiting the school from buying more animals for slaughter.
With the other money they raised, Leo, Natasha and
their fellow students were able to buy three other animals who were slated
to be auctioned at the Miami-Dade County Fair. On March 21, 2004, the day
after the auction�and several weeks after the girls contacted
Jackie�"Bacon," now named Daisy, and her friends Petunia, Tulip, and Mary,
were taken to the Wildlife Care Center in Fort Lauderdale, Fla where they
spent their days splashing in a pool and racing around. In May, Daisy and
her friends were sent to their permanent home at Tennessee's Shepherd's
Green, an accredited sanctuary.
Go on to
Cutting Out Dissection
Return to Activism Unleashed
