Butcher at wrong home kills family’s pigs, lawsuit says. ‘They were meant to be pets’
A woman’s home security camera notified her that two men — and a local butcher shop’s truck — were on her property May 1 when she wasn’t there.
Then she heard gunshots ring out over the surveillance system.
Natalie Gray arrived home soon after, followed by her husband Nathan, to find her pet pigs, Betty and Patty, were killed by the men who were still at their Washington residence, according to a new lawsuit.
By that point, both pigs’ throats were slit, and the men “were preparing to hoist (Betty) by one limb and bleed her out,” a complaint filed June 2 in state Superior Court says.
In the complaint, the Grays say the men arrived at their Port Orchard home, about a 60-mile drive west from Seattle, “without permission” while working for Farmer George Meats.
They broke into the couple’s fenced pen, where Betty and Patty were with other “beloved” animals owned by the Grays, and slaughtered their “companion pigs of almost three years,” the complaint says.
Betty and Patty were both 2-year-old female Kunekune pigs, a domestic breed.
With Natalie and Nathan Gray in a state of shock and devastation, the complaint says the men “callously offered free butchering of Betty and Patty, as if (the Grays) would even think of eating them.”
A mistake?
According to the lawsuit, the men were at the wrong address when they shot the pigs.
One of the men, a Farmer George Meats butcher, told The Washington Post that they meant to kill a customer’s pigs that day for the purpose of meat, as requested by the customer.
The butcher said he and the other man, described as his friend, made a wrong turn while driving to the customer’s house and arrived at the Grays’ farm, where they said they shot and killed two pigs, according to the newspaper.
The Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office responded to the shooting, and a deputy summarized in a May 1 incident report that a “butcher shot the wrong neighbors pigs.”
“They were never meant to be slaughtered. They were meant to be pets,” Natalie Gray said of Betty and Patty while speaking with KING-TV earlier in May.
She detailed how her daughters would run, play and get muddy with the pigs, which were supposed to live on the family’s Gray Acres Farm.
A photo provided to McClatchy News by the Grays’ attorney, Adam Karp, shows one of the pigs outside, sitting in a small pool and drinking out of a water bottle held by one of the Grays’ daughters.
Now, Natalie and Nathan Gray are suing the butcher, the second man and Farmer George Meats on several claims, including trespassing, reckless infliction of emotional distress and gross negligence.
A message left with the butcher shop seeking comment from McClatchy News wasn’t immediately returned on June 4.
Karp, who specializes in animal law, told McClatchy News he felt a mix of “grave exasperation, spirited indignancy, and heartbreak” upon hearing what happened to Betty and Patty.
“As a vegan of decades, this senseless and grotesque execution causing ripples of torment for the Gray family battered a deep ethical nerve within me,” Karp said June 4 in an emailed statement.
According to the May 1 incident report, the butcher told the sheriff’s deputy he “got a work order to butcher two pigs” at a property where “no one was supposed to be home.”
He explained “he messed up when he did not punch the address into his (Google) maps” while heading to the property, the deputy wrote in the report.
The butcher told the deputy “he had done everything,” explaining the other man “was only there assisting him” when he shot the pigs, according to the report.
While speaking with The Washington Post, he said he apologized to Natalie Gray upon realizing the mistake, saying his “heart dropped.”
‘I wanted my girls to have pigs’
In May, Natalie Gray told KIRO-TV she has cats, dogs, ducks and a chicken — and that Betty and Patty joined her family in 2022.
The Grays told their 9- and 12-year-old daughters what happened to their pets after the girls returned from school, according to The Washington Post.
Both sisters made a headstone for the pigs, which are now buried in the family’s backyard, KIRO-TV reported.
“They were so cute. They were the size of a small little dog,” Natalie Gray told the news station.
“I heard they were just like dogs and super fun to have, and I wanted my girls to have pigs,” she said.
“Now my youngest, she doesn’t want (new animals),” Natalie Gray told KIRO-TV. “She said, ‘well, what happens if someone comes over? I don’t want that to happen like it happened to Patty and Betty.’”
With their lawsuit, the Grays are seeking an unspecified amount in damages to be proven at trial, the complaint shows.
“I am honored to represent them to bring justice to this tragedy,” Karp told McClatchy News.
This story was originally published June 4, 2024 at 12:41 PM with the headline "Butcher at wrong home kills family’s pigs, lawsuit says. ‘They were meant to be pets’."
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