This Lunar New Year, check out these six pigs that are fabulous, famous, and hogging the limelight.
Esther the Wonder Pig is super cute in a wig and sunglasses.You’ll find it tough – even if you’re not a pig person – to not fall in love with our pick of six porky celebrities. From adventurous and brave, to lovable and charming, here are our faves from the porcine world.
Esther
No celebrity pig list is complete without Esther the Wonder Pig! The 295kg star has close to 500,000 followers on Instagram, 1.5 million followers on Facebook, and a bestselling book – Esther the Wonder Pig: Changing the World One Heart at a Time.
Derek Walter and Steve Jenkins adopted Esther in 2012, thinking she was a teacup pig. When it became clear that the piglet was a full-sized commercial pig, her owners quit their jobs and moved from a Canadian city to a farm – just so Esther can live a happy life.
Today, Esther and her other animal friends live on the Happily Ever Esther Farm Sanctuary. Esther, who recently fought off breast cancer, continues to captivate the world with her adorable antics.
Jamon
Jamon has more than 340,000 fans on Facebook and more than 65,000 followers on Instagram. The six-year-old micropig (whose name means “ham” in Spanish!) was a Valentine’s Day gift for his owner, Andrea Mendes. He has since become a porky celebrity in Brazil.
Jamon loves dressing up and posing for photographs. He has starred in TV adverts, has had a documentary made about him, and has even starred in a famous Brazilian singer’s music video. But Jamon doesn’t let fame go to his head – his hobbies include eating and sleeping,
just like us.
Priscilla and Poppleton
Known as the world’s most stylish pigs, this sibling miniature pig duo have taken the internet by storm. They love playing dress up – especially for the holidays (any holiday will do). Priscilla and her young brother Poppleton go to school with their teacher owner, Melissa Nicholson, every day.
To date, the famous duo has close to 690,000 followers on Instagram. They have even published their own children’s books: Prissy & Pop: Big Day Out and Prissy and Pop Deck the Balls. They have also made guest appearances at fundraisers across the US, to raise money for animal shelters.
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Kama
Kamapua’a, or Kama the surfing pig, lives in Oahu, Hawaii. He shot to fame when his owner, Kai Holt, posted pictures of him riding waves. Holt said his family was on a camping trip when the orphaned piglet wandered onto their campsite. They decided to adopt him, and took him back home.
One day, Kama fell into a pool – where he revealed himself to be part mermaid – because he loves to swim. Kama has become a celebrity in Hawaii for his amazing surfing skills. Holt says that Kama is an expert on a surfboard, and isn’t interested in surfing if there are only small waves.
Kama has a son, Kama 2, and a granddaughter, Kama 3. His son has grown too big to surf properly, but Kama 3 is training hard to become a master surfer herself.
Chris P Bacon
Chris P Bacon (crispy bacon, geddit?) is a YouTube and talk-show sensation. Chris was born without the use of his back legs, and he needs a wheelchair to get around. Chris’s owner, Len Lucero, adopted him when his previous owner wanted to put him down.
Lucero says ever since Chris was put into his first wheelchair, there has been no stopping the piglet. Chris even has a day job – visiting children with physical or mental disabilities, and getting all the hugs, grapes, and Cheerios a pig could possibly want. Lucero says that Chris even seems to think he is a human.
He is piggy proof that nothing is impossible – because if a bacon-named pig in a wheelchair can be happy and famous, there’s nothing in the world you can’t achieve!
Edited by Ginny Wong