Henrico County hosted a very special birthday party last week — with cake, squeals and a roll in the mud to celebrate a family of Ossabaw Island hogs at Meadow Farm Museum at Crump Park in Glen Allen.
Eight piglets were born Nov. 26, 2023, in the care of the county’s parks and recreation department. Officials celebrated the piglets’ first birthday this year with the four that remain in county care: Archie, Ducky, Iggy and Otis.
Jim Weinpress, zoology manager for the parks department, told VPM News his staff worked day and night to raise them.
“We were there every moment, ensuring that they were gaining weight, eating properly, [and] behaving as piglets should,” Weinpress said. “It's our responsibility to make sure that they're physically, mentally and emotionally healthy animals. They mean the world to us.”
Meadow Farm Museum, a recreational and educational space opened in 1981, highlights the early history of Henrico and Central Virginia. The farm's exhibits provide insight into the Shepherd family, who called the lands of Meadow Farm home during the 18th century.
The farm houses heritage breed livestock — animals that could be found on the original farm, including a surprise litter of Ossabaw hogs.
The farm’s oldest hogs were Mildred and Mable, an inseparable pair of adult female pigs. Mable was euthanized in October 2023 after developing several age-related health problems. But pigs are social animals, so Weinpress said acquiring another pig to live with Mildred was important to county animal care staff.
Gertrude, the pig the farm adopted to keep Mildred company, soon gave birth to an unexpected litter of eight piglets — but it wasn’t always smooth sailing.
“She wasn't producing milk, she was a first-time mother,” Weinpress said. “So staff intervened, and we spent the next several months hand-raising eight piglets, which is a 24-hour-a-day job.”
Weinpress and the animal care staff were all hands on deck parenting pigs, bottle-fed the piglets every two hours for the first 48 hours, weighing them to track their health and socializing with them as well.
Eventually those feeding times switched to every four hours for most of the piglets, but Otis — the runt of the litter — needed special care. Emilee Orndorff, a senior animal care specialist, told VPM News that staff members often took Otis home to ensure he was fed regularly and on time.
Because of the additional care requirements, Otis was largely separated from his siblings during the early stages. His only consistent companions at the time were stuffed animals, a tennis ball and the staffers who took care of him. That meant staffers also had to figure out how to reintegrate Otis into the family.
“We did a really good job of figuring out how to socialize him with his brothers and sisters so that he's able to live a full life and express the full range of pig behaviors,” Orndorff said. “Now he's able to navigate all of that. … It really shows the fruits of the labor that our entire team has put together.”
Henrico’s animal care team would later rehome two male pigs to Henricus Historical Park in Chesterfield County and two female pigs to Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence, Rhode Island, but the other four remain under close care by county staff.
Weinpress said celebrating the piglets’ first birthday was a major milestone that exemplified the department’s mission to care for and educate the public on the importance of Virginia’s domestic animals.
“I've been privileged to work with a variety of species from across the world,” Weinpress said. “But I love working in Henrico with these domesticated animals, because they're such unique breeds, and their history is both human and animal and natural.”
“I love being able to tell that story and showcase how great these animals are to the community,” he added.
