Neglect of a Pet Pig in Minnesota

According to a report on L.A.'s KNBC.com (here), a woman in Minnesota named Michelle Schmitz is pursuing charges against another women with whom she entrusted her pot-bellied pig named Alaina Templeton (left). Apparently while in the other woman's care the pig grew from 50 pounds to 150 pounds. I'm not sure why one would expect a pig not to grow, but apparently that isn't really the issue here, for the pig-sitter left the pig's collar on, which wound up embedded in its neck, requiring surgical removal. The pet-sitter is facing a charge of animal neglect and a claim from Schmitz for the resulting $1,000 veterinary bill.

Speaking of neglect, as hopefully someone has noticed, I've fallen quite a bit behind on this blog in the last couple of weeks. Things have been a bit crazy, suffice to say. I'll try to make some progress here now that I'm finally approaching the end of the semester. Just in time for the holidays and the joys (believe it or not) of sporadic internet access. More soon, then...

Helen Hill's "Your New Pig Is Down The Road" (1999)

One of my regrets is that I missed my chance to see the films of Helen Hill when they were shown at REDCAT here in Los Angeles earlier this month. Hill was an important filmmaker and activist in New Orleans who received national attention for all the wrong reasons when she was killed (and her husband wounded) in January in their home in the Marigny. The reviewer for the L.A. Weekly who previewed the REDCAT retrospective referred to Hill's 1999 film Your New Pig Is Down The Road as "exuberant, with brilliant flashes of cheerful daisies superimposed on a baby pig--a love letter [to Hill's husband, Paul Gaillunas] perhaps unlike any other." I really wish I gotten to see it. There is lovely site paying tribute to Helen Hill here that lists other upcoming screenings of her playful, homemade animated films.

Today's image is of Hill, Gaillunas, and their pet pig Rosie in New Orleans in a clever parody of the Lucky Dog carts one sees all over the French Quarter. I found it here at the site of John Porter, another Super 8 filmmaker.