ORLANDO,
Florida (Reuters) - Prospects for a disabled farm animal born without the use
of its hind legs are normally grim.
That
is not the case for Chris P. Bacon, a month-old piglet from Florida whose
videotaped struggle to learn how to use a tiny wheelchair have turned him an
Internet sensation.
"He's
cute. He grunts. And he's got a pretty cute little wheelchair," said
veterinarian Len Lucero, trying to explain why his YouTube video of Chris's
exploits have logged more than 474,000 views in two weeks.
After
a client who could not care for Chris dropped him off at Lucero's veterinary
hospital in Clermont, Florida, 30 miles west of Orlando, Lucero grabbed pieces
from a child's set of K'nex construction toys to build a tiny wheelchair to
mobilize the rear-end of the pink-and-white piglet.
The
six-minute video shows Chris, then one pound and 10 days old, struggling with
the contraption on Lucero's living room rug.
Chris
walks on his front legs while lifting and holding the wheelchair off the
ground. He grunts and roots around in the rug for food. He drinks lamb formula
out of a baby bottle and wears a wet milk moustache.
Two
other YouTube videos of Chris playing with a stuffed yellow duck and waking up
in an incubator attracted another 160,000 views.
More
than 14,000 people have clicked on "like" the "Chris P Bacon Pig
on Wheels" Facebook page, and 1,000 people follow him on Twitter.
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