The re-establishment today of energy to 100% of EDP’s clients was ‘too late’ for 200 piglets of a secluded pig farm in Leiria’s Bidoeira de Cima.
Brothers Joaquim and Manuel tried to keep the farm going with the use of a generator after Storm Kristin blew out the power over Leiria at the end of January – but at night they had to remove it (due to fear of robberies in the areas that is ‘isolated’ from villages nearby).
Talking to reporters, the brothers explained ‘nest refuges’ for piglets are kept lit through the night so that they can huddle together and keep warm. Without the light identifying the refuges, piglets wriggled close to their mothers, often with tragic consequences.
“I arrived this morning, and just one sow had five piglets crushed to death beneath her”, Joaquim told Lusa yesterday – adding that just in that one day, the farm had lost 12 or 13 newborn piglets.
Power has finally returned to Bidoeira de Cima, but it has been a very difficult month since Storm Kristin.
Source material: LUSA
