Wrong Turn Gets Family's 2 Pet Pigs Slaughtered

A Washington state family says an address mix-up led to the slaughtering of their two pet pigs. In a lawsuit filed by Natalie and Nathan Gray against Farmer George Meats, the Grays say employees of the butcher shop entered the wrong property—their property in Port Orchard, Washington—and fatally shot the two female Kunekune pigs, USA Today reports. The Grays returned home to find the two-year-old pigs, Betty and Patty, dead, the Washington Post reports. Per the lawsuit, the butcher shop received an order from a man who lived nearby and wanted his pigs slaughtered and turned into meat, and had given employees permission to enter his property and shoot the pigs. Instead, employees took a wrong turn and ended up on the Grays' property, the lawsuit says.

After the Grays arrived home to the shocking scene, the lawsuit says that, "adding to the devastation, and despite Hines and Dillon being told Betty and Patty were family, the Grays were then callously offered free butchering of Betty and Patty." The family is suing the butcher shop and its workers for trespassing, reckless infliction of emotional distress, and more. They want economic damages, including burial expenses for the pigs, damages to their land, and damages "representing the intrinsic value of Betty and Patty." The butcher shop, and the employee who allegedly made the error, apologized to the Grays, who have daughters ages 12 and 9 and raise a number of animals as pets on their small farm. (More Washington state stories.)