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A pig of a promotion

Thursday, 8 September 2005 12:00 AM

Free carpets, turf or even offering to pay your solicitor's fees are among the incentives typically offered by developers to entice people into buying a new house.

But a developer in Gloucestershire is offering an altogether more unusual incentive.

Anyone looking to buy a house on the exclusive Lower Mill estate, near Cirencester, Gloucestershire, will be offered a free pig with every purchase.

Purchasers can either keep the Gloucester Old Spot pigs as a pet when they move into their new house, or on a farm where it will eventually be turned into "the finest pork loins and rashers of bacon".

The promotion, which runs until the end of September, has already been taken up by two buyers who opted to keep the pig on the farm.

But the offer has been condemned by the RSPCA.

"Simply taking on a pig because you've decided to buy a certain house sends the wrong message," said the RSPCA's head of farm animals, Julia Wrathall.

"Pigs are not part of the 'fixtures and fittings' of a property, they are living, sentient beings with very specific needs that must be catered for if they are to have a good quality of life."

The 450-acre Lower Mill estate, which lies in the heart of the Cotswolds, is currently home to about 80 properties, with more under construction.

For more information on the Lower Mill estate see: www.lowermillestate.com.

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