Rescue pig in spotlight after landing modelling job

A rescue pig was thrust into the spotlight after she was picked to model for a wine company.

Bridget from Tower Hill Stables Animal Sanctuary, near Southminster, in Essex, was selected to appear on labels of sparkling pink wine made by a London company.

The sanctuary said it had since been promised bottles of "Bridget", which it hoped to sell to raise funds.

Bridget's co-owner Martin Morgan said: "She's an international celebrity now; it's a big sense of achievement for the sanctuary, and for her. I don't think she'll try the wine, but we'll show her the label."

Mr Morgan said he had thought the request from Warwick Smith of Renegade Urban Winery to "discuss pigs" was a joke.

"We get a lot of wacky emails... then Warwick explained they were bringing out a new wine [which] he thought was a pig-pink colour and had found pictures of Bridget online.

"He wanted a photo of her nose because their wines always feature eyes and noses. They came over and we spent about 50 hours trying to take a photo with the eyes and nose perfectly aligned, because it was very difficult getting her to keep still."

Online customers who buy Renegade Urban Wine's sparkling wine Bridget, which includes Crouch Valley-grown Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes, were asked to make a voluntary donation to Tower Hill Stables.

"Looking after 400 animals costs a lot of money - the feed bill alone is £25,000 a month," said Mr Morgan.

"A lot of them are big animals - horses, cows, pigs, sheep, and it works out at less than £2 a day per animal, but when you look at it all together, it's like 'oh my god'."

Tower Hill Stables, which is not open to the public, also had to contend with vets' bills, farrier bills, and costs for tractor repairs, maintenance and muck-heap removal.

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