ASA Adjudication on Little Pig Farm Ltd

Ad

A magazine ad, for micro pigs was headlined “LITTLE PIG FARM Specialist Micro Pig Breeder” and “Micro/Mini Pot Bellied Pigs. Micro Pigs - pets for the future …” Text stated “Here at the Little Pig Farm we specialise in breeding gorgeous friendly pet pigs, we believe the smallest in the UK. Our health & welfare standards are paramount and we truly love and care for every one of our little pigs, this reflects in their temperament, physique and nature. From 12”-16” tall, they are clean, loving, intelligent, easy to care for, and highly enjoyable pets”. The ad featured a photo of a very small pig and a chick, and a watermark which stated “LITTLE PIG FARM Specialist Micro Pig Breeder”.

Issue

The British Kune Kune Pig Society challenged whether:

1. the claim "from 12"-16" tall" was misleading, because they believed there was no such micro pig breed, and there was no breed that would grow only as tall as 16";

2. the claim "easy to care for" was misleading, because they believed that these pigs were likely to grow to normal size and become difficult to care for as pets.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

1. Little Pig Farm Ltd (Little Pig Farm) said that it was true that there was no such breed as a micro pig, but micro pig had become a standard description for a variety of cross-bred pigs whose breeding lines had been specifically selected in order to produce livestock with a characteristic small size. They said that the ad did not claim that micro pig was a specific breed, but was a description of an animal. They said they had been breeding the pigs for over a year and had sold over 300. They were satisfied that the overwhelming majority had remained within the quoted size range at maturity, but they did acknowledge that some pigs had been returned to them because they had exceeded the anticipated size. They explained that this occurred because of the introduction of inappropriate stock which they maintained they had been mis-sold. They said that that stock had since been removed from their breeding pool and the situation had been rectified. They provided an e-mail from a customer who confirmed that her pig had not grown beyond the stated size.

2. They said that micro pigs were easy to care for and rejected the contention that their pigs would grow to a size more usually associated with purely agricultural livestock. They said that a pig properly bred to grow within the size range in the ad would indeed be easy care for, within the parameters set out in full on their website.

Assessment

1. Upheld

The ASA noted that the ad referred to "Micro Pigs" and "little pigs" and stated that Little Pig Farm "specialised in breeding ... pet pigs" which they "believed were the smallest in the UK". On that basis, we did not consider that readers would infer that Micro Pig was a specific pig breed, but would understand that the advertisers bred smaller pigs as pets. We considered, however, that the claim "from 12" - 16" tall" was likely to be interpreted by consumers as an absolute claim that adult pigs would grow no taller than 16 inches, and noted that we had not seen substantiation in support of that claim. We noted that Little Pig Farm believed they had rectified previous problems with pigs growing beyond the advertised size by removing stock from their breeding pool. However, we did not consider that it could be assumed that a similar situation would not occur again in future, and we therefore considered that the size claim made in the ad should have been more conditionally worded.

Because it was not, and because we had not seen sufficient evidence to support the claim "from 12" - 16" tall", we concluded that the claim was likely to mislead.

On that point, the ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation) and 7.1 (Truthfulness).

2. Not upheld

We understood that Little Pig Farm vetted would-be owners to make sure that they would be able to care for the pet, that the living environment was suitable and that they understood the needs of the animal. We understood that the Little Pig Farm website provided information about the needs of the pig and they also provided direct support and advice to owners bringing up little pigs. We noted that the ad also referred to the temperament, nature, cleanliness and intelligence of the pigs in relation to the "easy to care for" claim. We considered that most readers would expect caring for any house-based pet to require a certain amount of work and would understand the claim "easy to care for" in that context.

Because we considered that readers would understand there was a certain amount of work and effort involved in caring for the little pigs, irrespective of their eventual size, and because we understood that the Little Pig Farm provided support and advice to customers, we considered the ad was unlikely to mislead on that point.

On that point, we investigated the ad under CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation) and 7.1 (Truthfulness), but did not find it in breach.

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)