Village school targeted over pigs

A village primary school has been plagued with hate mail from animal rights activists after launching a pig rearing scheme, it has been reported.

The tiny school in Suffolk, which has just 25 pupils, has been subjected to 400 complaints along with threatening emails from all over the world.

Kath Cook, the headteacher of Peasenhall Primary School, in Peasenhall, near Ipswich, told The Daily Telegraph that she has spoken to police because of the level of harassment.

It started when the school's scheme to help children learn about the origins of food was reported on a local TV news programme.

Ms Cook said: "We are being bombarded by nasty, vile calls and e-mail messages from all over the world, even America and Australia."

She added: "Some of them are very threatening - things like I should be taken to a slaughterhouse. We are getting images of animals being killed or kept in cages - it is horrible. We are just trying to shield the children from it all but they have even threatened to demonstrate outside the school."

The three pigs, crosses between Berkshire and Gloucester Old Spot pigs, are kept in a pen and fed and monitored by the children with the help of experts from Suffolk Smallholder Society, the Telegraph said.

They will be sent for slaughter in the summer.

Protests have been led by a group calling itself the Colchester Animal Defenders, which encouraged people to call the school to raise concerns, the paper added.

A spokeswoman for the group said: "Children should not be exposed to this sort of thing - these pigs will be slaughtered and eaten and no animal should be used as food. There is no such thing as healthy meat - the children should not be taught that meat is necessary or that pigs are lesser beings than humans."