Please Share My Petition With Others!  Thank you for working together with me to help stop a contest which puts baby pigs in such unnecessary cruel distress while rewarding kids who caused it.

🫶All my contact info is located at the bottom⬇️.

🫶There's also contact info for people you could reach out to, so you could kindly ask them to PLEASE SUPPORT A NONANIMAL alternative to this disturbing pig scramble.

When we have more information, we have the opportunity to make kinder choices with our time or money.

The pig scramble at the Shenandoah County Fair in Woodstock, VA needs to stop. Your signature shows the promoters and legislators that you agree!  I would not choose to take the place of one of these young pigs in the scramble.  If I were a baby pig, I'd want to be treated kindly and hope others came to my rescue when they saw me being chased, frightened, and dragged unnecessarily in a county fair contest.

Sadly, in the last two years alone, over 200 sentient pigs endured this pig scramble. You can certainly Google this event, and you may find the photos disturbing.  We've held multiple protests against this egregious event to get it stopped and shed more light on this outdated disgusting contest. It's 2026 and we're more educated on the mental health of animals and children. These pigs aren't willing participants and why are we cheering for kids while they treat them this way? Children need to know how to pet and treat any animal appropriately. They can learn that from adults who show animals respect and kindness.

This pig scramble takes place outside in front of a grandstand in an area enclosed by a fence. Each group (according to age) can grease their hands to make it more difficult to hold tightly to the legs of the young pig who they're attempting to catch and drag to a pen. Pigs who are hauled out of a trailer amble over and stand close to each other for safety. The atmosphere is frenzied with yells and cheers. The children (3-8-years-old) are given the go and off they run to catch a pig a few months old.  The piglets are seen trying to free their legs with strong jerking motions.  As a prey animal, they are placed into a heightened state of panic and they're seeking shelter or safety.  Some children are crying while trying to keep a  strong grip on the pig they caught to drag them to the pen.   It's barbaric. The child who completes the task of dragging the struggling piglet to the pen, has the option of bringing  home the pig to raise.  People register to participate, but the pigs have no choice. They are automatically signed up. Have you been in a situation where you were chased? How did that make you feel? Did you feel frightened or trapped? Did you want someone to come to your aid?

Promoters state winning a pig and bringing them home teaches kids how to care for a pig and about agriculture. I think it teaches kids that continually chasing after a scared animal is ok and if they outlast it, they'll be rewarded with bringing the animal home. Why do we celebrate kids chasing an animal incessantly? If they bullied another child this way, they'd be reprimanded and told to respect the other child's autonomy and boundaries. Most children exhibiting negative behavior toward another child would be told by an adult or teacher to stop. Fear is fear. I believe by allowing county fair contests,  like this pig scramble,  we're saying to kids that it's ok to take control over someone smaller than them and not let them go.

Pigs are prey animals and their natural instinct is to flee and to find safety. A live animal shouldn't be earned by first being chased, pounced on by greased hands, caught, and dragged. Not everyone is having fun. We must strive for empathy and help our kids learn it too. Empathy asks us to understand and share the feelings of another.  Let's not ignore, but see that these animals deserve so much better. They have real feelings.  They're scared and they could be injured. Children are impressionable and they're taking cues from adults.  Children can learn responsibility and have fun without carrying out these actions against an animal in a contest.

I attended three Woodstock Town Council meetings speaking on how exceptionally cruel this contest is for these pigs. I was told by some on the council that it teaches kids about agriculture and children learn how to take care of a pig.  However, this SHOULDN'T be the first step on how to take care of a pig or any animal!  I realize this council doesn't decide fair events, but they represent the town that profits the most. Anyone on that council who has read the articles or attended this scramble knows how it plays out for these pigs. It's disheartening. One article by the Northern Virginia Daily quoted someone who mentioned their kid's been practicing wrestling with the dog for fun. Why is it ok to practice wrestling with a dog for this disturbing contest?!

I've reached out to the Shenandoah County Fair Board.

For anyone who would say that it's been going on for years. First, let's not assume that everything has positive value just because it's had longevity and second, I can appreciate traditions and I have some of my own, but I believe this contest devalues pigs' lives. I have to ask how could a person who says they care about animals, support a pig scramble, where the actions of some children and adults unnecessarily contribute to pigs' distress? When I care about someone, I want to keep them safe and I don't like seeing them frightened and I certainly don't case and drag them by a leg or two. People can make NEW traditions, yes it's possible! Change led us to air travel, streaming services, cell phones, cars, washing machines, computers, and electricity, etc. 

Stress can be particularly hard on
Pigs (remember they're prey animals) because their heart size is small relative to their body weight. They can move through stages of stress in minutes, which can lead to heart attacks and fatalities. They can suffer injuries with mishandling  such as joint dislocations, broken legs/backs,  spine/nerve damage, stress, pain, overheating, and torn ligaments/abdominal walls, pulled muscles, and psychological trauma to name a few.  A couple years ago it was nearly 100 degrees. Can you imagine if we saw puppies treated like the piglets in this scramble?  Most people would be horrified. I don't understand why some animals' wellbeing is worth more than others. Pigs and dogs both feel pain and fear.

Have you seen pigs laying in
shallow water or mud? They use
mud and water to cool off like we would take a cool shower or jump in the pool.  Sweating is less effective for pigs since they have fewer sweat glands than humans, again relative to their size. This is also why overheating can be a problem in stressful contests like this if the weather is hot. You know pigs have been found to be as smart as three-year-old children and they've actually completed complex tasks better than them! Some of the kids chasing/dragging pigs are only three-years-old. Pigs have been found to be smarter than dogs.

In addition, pigs have excellent long-term memories and recall trauma,  humans, and animals they met years ago, just like us!  Many people have had to deal with trauma they experienced years ago and might be able to understand what it's like to remember such a difficult time. Why can't we commiserate with how upsetting this chase must be for these animals?  I'm sure their fear is similar to those of cows calves at rodeos by someone with a rope to sling around their neck or legs.

The reason I state this information, is that it's important to educate ourselves about pigs and to see them as more than a fair event.  They're not just an object. Many consider them the fifth most intelligent animal in the world. They can recognize their names at two weeks of age! They have problem-solving abilities which allows them to navigate mazes, and they can even recognize themselves while looking in a mirror. Like us, they're social animals who often work together to solve challenges and they wag their tails when they recognize friends, just like dogs!  This is similar to how humans smile toward one another! Pigs even designate specific areas to defecate to keep their eating and sleeping areas clean. Humans do the same by utilizing bathrooms. Yes, pigs are actually clean animals! Lastly, sows sometimes sing to their piglets, much like human parents! However, someone or something's intelligence shouldn't decide if we should pull their body's appendages in multiple directions or suspend them in the air by their legs.

We don't always allow ourselves to see animals on a deeper level in order to relate to them, if we did (with any animals, yes including chickens, sheep, goats, fish, etc) we'd TREAT them differently. We'd SEE them differently.   For instance, chickens can remember 100 different faces of both humans or other chickens, have fantastic color vision, and use 30 different vocalizations.  If you want to know more about animals you could use the internet, read a book, or visit a reputable sanctuary. A REPUTABLE sanctuary DOES NOT breed animals over and over again to use the babies to entice attendees and they don't force animals to do tricks. You know some of us may have a we vs. them mentality and I believe that we're better than that.

So what's the plan?  Well, let's REPLACE this pigscramble with an animal-free activity. Alternatively, children could have fun with bubbles, a sand box, a corn shucking contest, touch-a-truck, ring toss, potato sack races, stroller races with a stuffed animal (the kiddo who wins gets to keep the little stuffed toy),  greased up (with vegetable oil) watermelons that the children roll in a race, obstacle courses, relay races where two kids walk back to back with a beach ball between them, jump rope contests, cake/cookie walks, musical chairs, talent contest,  Bingo, and a karaoke contest, etc. The music used during the cake/cookie walk and musical chairs could be from the concert artists that would be performing that week for further promotion.

Huge U.S. state fairs that bring in greater attendance than this little county fair don't promote pig scrambles. In 2024, Texas had nearly 2.4 million attendees, Minnesota nearly 2 million.  Iowa, Wisconsin, Tulsa, North Carolina had over 950,000 to over 1 million. Some of the large county fairs that also don't promote pig scrambles are Orange County with nearly over 1 million, San Diego County with nearly 900,000, and York State Fair (PA) with over 400,000 attendees. In fact, pig scrambles are banned in Minnesota and at the Common Grounds County Fair, due to the acknowledgement of people that pig scrambles aren't relevant with all the animal welfare info we have today. All of the above information, helps make the case that this pig scramble must go.

Animals deserve better. Let's not make light of what's really going on here. Not all the participants are having a great time. Here's your opportunity to choose compassion toward animals who need your voice. What's it going to be? Look the other way, or make the world just a little better for pigs and sign this petition? Not only did I refuse to look away, I created this petition and social media accounts to bring light to it. Please sign. My contact info ⬇️

***My Email: stoppigscrambleva@gmail.com

 ***Follow Me (to stay updated) Instagram: @stoppigscrambleva Facebook: stoppigscrambleva

***Email: shenfair459@gmail.com and call 540-459-3867 Kindly Ask The Shenandoah County Board Directors/Officers to refrain from holding this contest and replace it with a nonanimal one.

***Write: Shenandoah County Fair Association, Inc. P.O. Box 264 300 Fairgrounds Road Woodstock, VA 22664 USA

***The House Representative for this area is Ben Cline.

Call:  202-225-5431              Email:  rep.ben.cline@house.gov Write: The Honorable Ben Cline U.S. House of Representatives 2443 Rayburn House Office Building Washington DC 20515

***Governor Abigail Spanberger Phone Number- 804-786-2211 Email- Abigail.Spanberger@governor.virginia.gov

***Senator Mark Warner

919 East Main Street
Suite 630
Richmond, VA 23219
Phone Number: 804-775-2314 

***Senator Tim Kaine                             919 EAST MAIN STREET, SUITE 970
Richmond, VA 23219
Phone: (804) 771-2221

***Timmy French, District 1

Room No: 603
Senate of Virginia
P. O. Box 396
Richmond, VA 23218
Phone: (804) 698-7501
Fax: (804) 698-7651
Email Address
senatorfrench@senate.virginia.gov

P.O. Box 628
Woodstock, VA 22664
Phone: (540) 325-8767

Thanks for signing! Please contact me with this email @stoppigscrambleva@gmail.com with any questions. Thanks for your compassion and empathy!