 Joining me today is Jillian Vickers from the Maui Pig Sanctuary. Welcome, Jillian. Hi, hello. Thank you for being on the show. So, tell us about how you got involved in saving pigs. It started in 2020, right before the island kind of got shut down. It was Valentine's Day 2020, and I went to the feed store to get some of the supplies for the horses, and there was some piglets with a person in the parking lot, and I just commented on how cute they were, and she asked if I wanted them, and no hesitation whatsoever. I said, yes, I would love to have them, and I learned all about pigs, how to raise them. I raised them in the house. I bottle fed them every two hours for three weeks, and actually not bottle feeding, but a different type of feeding, their food, but not in a bottle for pigs. And learned all about pigs, and had them for, I don't know, maybe eight months before we started going, we went outside every day, but they moved kind of outside in the daytime and inside at night when they were about eight months old, and then I started posting online about my pigs because it was the pandemic and we weren't supposed to work, so I didn't want to put anything about the fact that I was still working going out there, so I just put the pigs out, and I started to get known for having pigs, and people asked for help with their pigs, and before you knew it, I fostered a couple more pigs, and I was a foster fail. They're still here, Wilbur and Puppy, and then another pig that got hurt got brought to me, and I still have her. Piggy Sue, she's part of the sanctuary now, and it just kind of escalated on Maui, where I became known as the person that would help with pigs, and then I met a few other people that were interested in that, and that's how it began, and then what really started it off was a farmer, a pig farmer, was going out of business, and his daughter gave me a call and had a pet pig called Noodle, and she wanted to know we would take Noodle, and he was gonna sell off the rest of the pigs and leave the island, and I said, well, you know, let me come over and see Noodle, and I got introduced to him, as well as about 20 other pigs that were production pigs being raised for meat, and I met these girls and all their little babies, and the situation they were living in, and I looked into their eyes, and just promised them I would make that better, and I left that day, it's been a good relationship with the farmer saying, yes, I would take Noodle and one other pig, but personally, I couldn't just take the two pigs out of that situation. I knew these pigs were being raised for meat, and I didn't want that to be their fate, so we put it out there to several people on Maui that we would like to form a sanctuary, and the company Mahipano stepped up, and they offered us land fenced and crossed fenced in water and everything we needed for the pigs, and we built a sanctuary down at Mahipano, and we did a GoFundMe to get all the pigs from the farmer, and that began the Maui Pig Sanctuary, and so we got 20 female full-size farm pigs from that situation, and that's how it started. We still have all of them, they're all in great health, they are retired, not rescued, they're retired, having a big, beautiful pasture with all the water they need and ponds and homes, and they live separate from the facility up at my place where we have another 20 pigs that have come in over the years, just a couple pigs here and there until we now have, I think we have 23 up here, and we have 16 that live permanently at Mahipano, and then the 38 fire pigs that we have also right there. We've adopted out five of those so far and four more leave on Thursday that are the fire ones, but yeah, that's how it started, and that was in 2021. Tell us about how the company that stepped up, what kind of, how did they have that land, what does the company, I've never heard of the company, so- Mahipano is the largest land owner on the island of Maui, I believe now they bought HCNS and the sugar cane, all the sugar cane land when that company went out of business, so you might wanna check on that and you could, and I got permission to use their name from the CEO before I brought this up too, but I would do some research on Mahipano, they're a big ag company here on Maui, they're not Maui owned, I believe it's, they're a bit controversial, I believe they own all the water rights and there's a water issue on the island of Maui as we all know right now after the fires, so they're a big company, they believe they employ more people than anyone else on the island, also I could be wrong in that, but I'm pretty sure they are the largest employer here as well as I think Ula Paola Cua maybe owns more land, Ula Paola Cua Ranch, but they would be a close second, yeah, and they grow everything here. So what inspired them to step up for the pigs? Was there somebody in the company that was interested in pigs or? I would say that I know the CEO's daughter had once been in 4-H and when she found out that she was going to have to surrender her animal and sell it for meat, that didn't sit well with her, and so she dropped out of 4-H and was looking for something else to do and she found horseback riding and I have a horseback riding school and so I think she may have mentioned to her dad, hey, we wanna save the pigs and she was just a young girl at that time, so that is probably how that came about. Well, that's wonderful, however it came about, that's wonderful. Yeah, I'm thinking that she asked daddy to help and it's been fantastic, they've been there for two years now, I have nothing but wonderful things to say about that company and they've just stepped up for these pigs, they're possibly giving us another chunk of land a little closer to my place up country and they've just been really wonderful and the community has stepped up a lot and it's challenging to have a pig sanctuary on Maui because we have a lot of feral pigs here and a lot of people that hunt, so I'm the opposite into the spectrum and I try to ride a very apolitical line on that and just help when we can help and not make anybody wrong and just do what we need to do to save as many as we can. So I mean, I heard something about, because I had somebody I knew at work that had a pig which ran away from a slaughter farm and then she just raised a pig from when the pig was tiny, tiny, the pig's like a thousand pounds now but she said that there's no laws protecting pigs that if the pig was in your property and someone shot it, it would be okay for them to shoot it even if it's on your property, is that true? I'm not sure about that. I would be willing to say that there is limited laws protecting pigs but I don't think anybody could come onto your property and shoot one of your animals. I would think that that would just be common sense in the law but I haven't researched that so I can't give an honest, truthful answer because I just don't know. They don't have a great reputation in the community although the smartest, gentlest, most compassionate loving animals I've ever met. I didn't know that in 2020 until raising them up but they are incredible, absolutely incredible animals and it's just a crime way that they are treated and in our society with factory farming and everything and I'm not gonna get into that someday. Right now our goal is just to educate people into how wonderful they are and how to take care of them as friends not food and for our sanctuary our mission is to, it wasn't originally but as we got into it we realized there's a big lack of vet care available for the pigs. Absolutely. Yeah, modern vet care. They don't understand how to treat them as dogs and cats are treated. And so for instance, we can't get the large pigs, female pigs spayed on the alley. There's no one that will do that, no vets that will do that at this time. They're too big, they don't have the facility for it. Pigs tend to have a hard time with anesthesia so we don't have any veterinarians here that will perform that operation which is very important for their longevity is to spade the female pigs. So we've got a couple vets who will do it under a hundred pounds and all of our females that we got that were under a hundred pounds are spayed or the babies that we have will be spayed and then everything we have is neutered. So yeah, but it's, so our goal now is to create a pig vet care clinic here on Maui to help people out with their pigs. And the vets we use are good vets. They just don't have the experience or the facility to do the operations to bring it up to the top level of animal care. So the people who have pigs on Maui that you're helping, they are just pet pigs that the people have? Most of the pigs that I'm referring to are feral pigs that were caught as babies or slaughter pigs that are now pets. I've got one pig and I believe there's a picture of her there that is, we found on the side of the road in March 22nd and she gave birth on May 15th and she is a smaller Cooney Cooney Potbelly Cross and she would be more considered a pet by these arbitrary standards that are out there dividing pigs into pets as slaughter pigs are pet pigs. And that we hope to move that, change that standard as well. And we're setting a precedent with this flight on Thursday, I must say. And we- What else about the flight on Thursday? Where are the- The flight on Thursday is pretty special. As you know, we rescued 38 pigs from Lahaina after the fires and we were called by hundreds of people to help those pigs out. Their whole area was burned and the ground was horrible, their owners lost their home and their jobs and their cars and we're not able to continue taking care of them. So we, and the Humane Society was not able to help with that nor did they contribute any funding for it. We just, we were kind of like the people that would do it. And there was so much going on over here at that time with people that lost their homes and just so much. I know you're probably aware of what was going on in the fire here with the lack of communication between different sections of the island and we were without power for five days. It was absolutely the worst thing I've ever lived through. And I'm 60 years old and we had both of our sanctuaries were under evacuation notice. So we, we couldn't even get to Lahaina until the 14th, I believe, is the first time we went over and we couldn't get the pigs out until August 22nd and the fire was on the eighth and we got them out on the 22nd and the 26th and we got them to beautiful homes on this side of the island where they could stay in quarantine for 60 days and get all their vet work done and breathe clean air and drink clean water and just decompress after what they went through because they, their farm, they survived because they went in the large pond under the water. The fire went over the top of them and these pigs were like the only survivors in that whole area. So it was crazy. That's why there's so many people calling us to go and help those four pigs. So it's piglets that were like where they were, they were raised for production by a very, very nice Samoan man and his wife who were raising them as part of their culture. And when they realized after this fire that they just couldn't take care of them and in order for us to step in, we had to have the pigs signed over as friends, not food to the sanctuary for a lifetime that they would live for a lifetime now. And they agreed to that and are just absolutely fantastic working with this. I speak with them at least once a week and they've even offered a portion of their land when it gets restored as a sanctuary section for the pigs. So it's nice to see that whole mindset change over during this disaster. So anyway, four of the piglets that were born in that fire, they were born on the 10th, will be flying to California, two boys and two girls to two different sanctuaries. Windpigs Fly is in Gernjill, California, up in Sonoma County. And the Rancho Compasión is in Nicosio Valley, California which I believe is also in Sonoma County. It's very close, it's not near Petaluma in that area by the San Francisco Bay area above it. And they will fly out on Thursday. They're the first pigs of this nature to get official documentation to be able to fly over as friends, not food and go to sanctuaries. So we are breaking ground on that and we want to continue to do that. And we're hoping with the sponsors of these pigs from Rancho Compasión and their sponsor, Miocos, we hope that they will just absolutely adore their piglets and help us find homes for the rest of them. There is a lot of pig sanctuaries in California and if they each took two, this would be unbelievable. But it's rather pricey endeavor. It's a couple thousand per pig to send them over. Wow, that's like a human plane ticket, I guess. Yeah, that is about a thousand for the plane ticket within all of the vet work and documentation that it requires and working with the Department of Agriculture and the USDA, the vets here and the vets in California and two different flights. I've learned a lot. We are in a big learning curve. So that's happening for them and we're really excited. And then tomorrow, we got our nonprofit license two weeks before the fire. We had been just operating and I basically pay for everything from my pocket but at the whole time setting up a nonprofit and getting a phenomenal board of directors and that which we have. And we got that all approved on July 13th and then that fire hit. And so we are just learning how to fundraise and I was about to say tomorrow is giving Tuesday which is the biggest fundraising day of the year for nonprofits. So we're learning how to do that and that's a big deal for us here on Banley. And we are the only sanctuary, I believe in the state that is solely pigs. There are other farmed animal sanctuaries that also do chickens and cattle and sheep and goats but we concentrate on pigs. So I don't quote me on that but I don't know. I'm pretty sure you are. I know the other animal sanctuaries. Yes. I know there's a loa and over on a wahoo. Yes, yes. There's the Lawni Big Island. Lawni's over here and she's magical creatures, yeah. Yeah, magical creatures. We have some people from magical creatures over here that used to work there that are helping us out. And then Lawni, she changed the laws for pigs. She did, yeah. Yeah, she did absolutely wonderful. Where pigs can no longer be barged out of the state. They can only stay within the state slaughter pigs that is. So it's a step. It's a step. Let's go through your pictures because you have such lovely pictures in the videos. Okay. So if you would run them, Michael, this one is, tell me. Okay, that is me and Cupid and Valentine when they were about four months old, I believe. So that would be maybe even three months old. March, maybe June of 2020. And then they're just sitting in my lap, yeah. So how about this one? That is Valentine now. Oh, wow. And he's about 800 pounds. Oh my God. Yeah, doesn't come in the house anymore. The house is upstairs. He would crash through the floor, but that's Valentine. And he's just a love. He's one of the leading leader pigs of the group. They are herd animals. That's Cupid and that was Cupid. He was playing Wilbur in a, a Charlotte's web skip we were doing with the kids at a house party at the barn. A big part of our program is our kids teaching program. We teach compassion and education about pigs, how friendly they are. And that's one of the children with, that's one of the babies that was born on May 15th this year, a little Cooney Cooney baby. I think it's syrup. That would be syrup. And the little girl is Amanda. She's nine years, or me again, she's nine years old. Yeah. And this is the pigs playing. Yeah, this is the little guys and they're, this is when they were about a month old and they're just out running and playing and zooming and that's their mother, Maple. And the babies are Maple's sugar, Maple's syrup, Maple's candy, Maple leaf, and Canuck is the little boy. And then Mama is Maple. And they're all spayed, neutered now. And that's something we're real proud of. And that's Mama Maple. Oh. She's cute. She's hanging for food. She wants a cookie. And that's sugar, her little girl. And this is Charlotte. Charlotte is the first pig that came with noodle out of the pigs that were raised for food farm. And she came over here and she was pregnant when she came. So she gave birth to her babies and she has three babies. They're here, they're two years old now. She had them on August 31st, 2021. And she's just one of the prettiest pigs in the world. And that's her making a face right there. That was Halloween. We were having a party and she was begging for some candy. So can see the little face she's making with her lips. And she's just a beautiful pig. She's probably, she's standing up on her hind legs, they're looking through a window, but she's probably about six or 700 pounds. Yeah. The pigs survived, the pond was full of water. So we think as it started to get hot and the flames came, they all went to the center of the water and squatted down as far as they could. And the fire just went right over them. Wow, pigs are so amazing. So smart. That water she's referring to is right over there. And it's just become contaminated now. And we've got to find them a place to be. Hi, beauties. Yeah, Laura was saying at the beginning about how they hid under the water and saved their own lives by going under the water in order to not get burned. They had spots on their back that were probably from embers falling on them is what we could figure out, burn spots. And it was in a, like a sprinkle pattern. Not all of them had it, some of them did. It's very odd. So smart. She's got a new blankie. My pie has a blankie. We love it. Oh, this has been made right. Good, my pie. I'm going to cry. Oh, baby. Oh. She says, this is our nest, you guys. This is our den. Oh. Yeah. Good momma. This is great. That was like the top landing right there. There is one other baby of hers that isn't the amazing thing that I won't go and get. I'd love it for her to stay together. I guess I'll just keep an eye and just make sure they're all drinking. I'm sure they're stressed. I see she's only got maybe three or four of those like super lactating, so. Yeah. They're probably just so stressed out. Yeah, so that was their arrival. And they, two of those babies, one that was at the Humane Society, and one of the little black ones are flying to Rancho Compassion this week. Hi, nice. Yeah. This is the other soft landing. This is Tunda. He's the biggest boar that was there at the fire. He's probably about five or 600 pounds, 550. Big boy. And he's now neutered, and this was where he landed compared to the completely decimated fire area. He just went right into that pond and sat for a good hour, just chilling out. He had the hardest time, this boy, coming back from the fire. He was really stressed. I think it's because he's the leader of the herd, I'm guessing, but he's had a really hard time with it. He's very healthy now. He's neutered. He's still with his herd, but his recovery from that was very challenging. And that is his son. I believe that's Junebug, her junior, with his pineapples. They love pineapples. We're really lucky. He's the whole thing, even though that's... Absolutely. Oh my God. They will carry the tops around. They will carry the tops around. And we're really lucky. We get a lot of great donations from down to earth and monofoods and a lot of people, Mahi Pono, donates fresh produce for the pigs. So we're really lucky. We get very well taken care of. This is another video. Here he is. Our big... Where they land in. Hi, guys. They're just in the water up on the hill here. He's a lazy boy. He's a nice long hose. I'm gonna make him a big puddle. This is just our mini pool here. And they've got buckets of drops of water over on the other side. And they're just out and about enjoying the heat. They're first day arriving. Fire zone. Yeah, freedom here. It's your freedom day. Welcome to life, guys. Who's here coming over? Talkative soul. Hello. Hello. I see you through the bushes. Cinnamon. I think we're all gonna get together over here. Finding each other. The website, Michael. The website's beautiful. And can you go to where they show the different pigs as well? We don't have all the pigs loaded on the website yet because we have been so busy with the fire. Doubling our capacity for pigs during this challenge. But that's Mr. That's Trific standing up right there. Can't see. I can't read it. So I can't tell if it says her name or not. And Christopher Hogwood. I think it does. Trific Hogwood, Christopher Hogwood. Yeah, Christopher is my son there. He was raised in the house. And he has his own story that will become a novel. At some point. Beautiful pig. Yeah. Yeah. If there's one thing you'd like to, you know, if people want to help out or if there's anything that they could do, you know, obviously donate. Is there like a button where they can donate on the website? There is a button on the website. And tomorrow, like I said, is giving Tuesday. I don't know when this will air. But we constantly will be running some sort of a fundraiser through our Facebook and Instagram. And I believe tomorrow they'll set up a go fund me. It's out of my area of expertise, but we've got one of the board of directors doing that. And they are doing something called Patreon, where those are monthly donors and you can also sponsor a pig or come out and volunteer and meet all the pigs and enjoy the, the just cuddling them and socializing them and making them available. And then we go to their forever homes learning about them. Yeah. I can, there's all sorts of ways to help right now. Financial is very useful because we did take on so many extras and we're doing the when pigs fly campaign. So that's always helpful on. We hope to turn this into an absolutely fantastic sanctuary in perpetuity where it'll be here forever on Valley. And that's what we're working on is putting all the pieces in place for that. And that's just going really well. The past couple of years have been amazing. How many people have stepped up to this? It's just, it's, it's crazy for me because my lifetime has been something completely different and to step into nonprofit and for pigs is a brand new adventure that I'm thoroughly embracing and just loving. And I could go ahead. No, go ahead. No. So, you know, we're out of time. I wish we had more time to talk to you, but maybe we'll have you back on the show. We have to wrap it up now. I'm Dr. This is healthy planet on the think tech by streaming network series. We've been talking with Jillian vickers from the Maui pigs sanctuary. Thanks to Michael, our broadcast engineer and the rest of the crew at think tech for hosting our show. And thanks to you, our listeners for listening. I'll see you in 2024 for more of healthy planet on think tech. The show for people who care about their health and the health of our planet. My guest will be Cindy. Take Sarah from Hawaii animal Kalyana alliance. If you have any ideas for the show or questions from my future guests, please contact me at healthy planet think tech at genome.com. Check out my website at grace in Hawaii. Com or Instagram at grace for living 365 for more information on my guests. My future guests and future projects. I'm Dr.