James Cromwell, who rescued a sweet piglet in “Babe” (1995), has now rescued a real one and named it Babe.
Variety stated that the juvenile cow was being fattened for meat in preparation for killing when it fell off a truck. James Cromwell, an honorary director of PETA, is now assisting with the transfer of Babe to the Indraloka Animal Sanctuary in Pennsylvania.
“Having had the privilege of witnessing and experiencing pigs’ intelligence and inquisitive personalities while filming, the film ‘Babe’ changed my life and my way of eating, and so I jumped at the chance to save this real-life Babe,” James Cromwell said Friday.
The piglet was found “scraped, bruised, and covered in mud” this week, according to PETA, before James Cromwell met it virtually and chose to adopt it. The actor, who played farmer Arthur Hoggett in “Babe” and its sequel, has long been an animal rights crusader.
“Every pig deserves to live in peace and joy at a sanctuary, where they can choose when to frolic, where they can forage, and how they spend their time,” Cromwell told Variety.
James Cromwell Peta Tweet
James and PETA will be taking the piglet—who is named after his critically acclaimed movie “Babe”—to his new life at @IndralokaAS 🫶
Don’t miss this sweet #Easter story unfold. Stay tuned for updates!
According to PETA, the meat business “slaughters 129 million pigs every year.” “Their tails are chopped off, their teeth are cut with pliers, and the males are castrated — all without painkillers,” the animal rights organization added.
James Cromwell’s piglet will join countless other rescue animals at the approximately 100-acre Indraloka Animal Sanctuary in Pennsylvania. The fundamental ideas of the sanctuary are that “the earth herself, and all life, is sacred” and that “we are all related.”
While Cromwell rescuing a pig from slaughter is a case of life mimicking art, the effort is comparable to the film since all 48 pigs used to film “Babe” was reportedly sent to farms to live out their lives in peace afterward.
Karl Lewis Miller, whose Animal Action business trained the pigs for “Babe,” told The Chicago Tribune at the time, “Each pig was released with a signed document that (the people getting them) understood these pigs were not meant for the table.”
Fortunately for this infant, it will be joining pigs, chickens, cows, and alpacas at Indraloka.
