Woman Threatens to Shave Head to Save Pigs

Pigs Peace Volunteer Donna with a pig friend

Forget bake sales and silent auctions, raffles and gala events. When it comes to non-profit fundraising, one animal activist has a different strategy; baldness.

Pig rescue organization volunteer Donna Gonder is offering to shave her head to raise funds for Pigs Peace Sanctuary, a non-profit safe haven for abandoned and abused pigs in Stanwood, WA. The rules are simple;

• If Donna reaches her fundraising goal of $180,000, she will shave her entire head. First snip goes to whoever donates the most.
• If Donna raises $20,000, an anonymous donor has agreed to match it with another $20k
• If you donate $10,000+ Donna will let YOU shave her head. Pigs Peace reps assured me that if they receive more than one $10,000+ donation, they’ll happily seek out other heads to shave. (Um, not it.)

What would a pig rescue organization do with $180,000 dollars? I’ll get to that, but first, you may be wondering why there’s a need for a pig rescue organization. Because despite being blessed with the gift of common sense, many humans still believe there is such a thing as a full grown pig the size of a teacup. So they buy these “magic” pigs and abandon them once the reality of size sets in. Animal shelters won’t accept the unwanted pigs so voila..pig rescue organizations to the rescue!

Here are five quick facts about Pigs Peace Sanctuary:

1. This organization really has its you-know-what together. Scratch that. That’s opinion, not fact.
2. 

   Pigs Peace Founder Judy

   Judy Woods (pictured left) founded Pigs Peace Sanctuary back in 1994, and they’ve been providing medicine, nutrition and care to its pigs ever since.

3. You may find Judy’s son Nathan working at the Sanctuary; he comes across (in their documentary) as a compassionate vegetarian animal lover and a great son. Oh, AND he’s cute. What’s not to like?!
4. Pigs Peace Sanctuary doesn’t just cater to pigs; they also cater to other abused animals including horses, dogs, llamas, cats and sheep.
5. The sanctuary offers the public an opportunity to visit and learn about animals, farming, and the foods we eat. I’m glad someone is teaching our next generation about where their food comes from. (I met a 5 year old once who tried to convince me that there was in fact a fruit roll-up tree. Scary stuff.)

If this isn’t enough to impress you, then watch one of the Pigs Peace videos to see for yourself. There’s a 30 minute documentary and some shorter videos as well.

So about that $180,000. Pigs Peace Sanctuary will use the money to purchase more land for pigs to roam free, plus fund a new education center where people can learn about animals. Additional land would enable the sanctuary to hold fundraising events on site without disturbing the animals or wasting money on outside venue costs. As Donna explains, every single penny that comes in is used for the animals and educating the public on how wonderful these creatures really are.

If Pigs Peace Sanctuary had a dollar for every idiot who buys a cute tiny piglet thinking it would stay that way, perhaps they wouldn’t need creative fundraisers like Donna.

Animals are not the only ones who stand to gain if volunteer Donna reaches her fundraising goal. If she shaves her head, Donna plans to donate her hair to Locks of Love, a non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children in the United States and Canada suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis.

I don’t have a lot of blog readers (yet), so if you are in the minority and reading this, please consider donating as much as you can to help Pigs Peace Sanctuary buy land. Get to know them better by visiting their website. You’ll find profiles of the sanctuary pigs with photos and stories of how each one was found. Plus they do a great job of showcasing what it’s like to live (and visit) there.

Here’s how to donate if you know George Clooney:

Do you know George Clooney? He lost his beloved 18 year old pet pig Max back in 2006. (RIP Max.)  I assume George is loaded, and clearly he has good taste in pets, so I’m thinking he might be willing to donate to Pigs Peace Sanctuary in Max’s name (there’s a ‘donate in honor of a loved one‘ feature on the Pigs Peace website), so if you know George, do me a favor and pass this post on to him.

Here’s how to donate if you don’t know George Clooney or if you ARE George Clooney:

1. Log onto http://pigspeace.org/main/donate.html
2. Choose your donation amount and method (Check or Paypal)
3. Write “head shaving” in the donation notes OR email atumnnn@gmail.com  a heads up (no pun intended) so they can keep track of all head shaving related donations

For questions or to help with this fundraising project, email pigheadedgirl@gmail.com or call (206) 289-0957.