Washington butcher slits the necks of family's beloved pet pigs while they were out in grisly mix-up - before offering her some of the meat as compensation

Two beloved pet pigs were shot and almost turned into meat after a butcher took a wrong turn and arrived at a family's hobby farm.

Natalie and Nathan Gray raced home to their property in Port Orchard, Washington, after their surveillance system alerted them to intruders about 1.30pm on May 1.

They arrived to find Betty and Patty, their two-year-old Kunekune pigs, dead and a butcher and his friend about to hoist the carcasses to drain the blood.

The butcher realized he'd made a horrible mistake, but the pigs were dead and he offered to give them the meat for free as compensation. This did not go down well. 

'[They] callously offered free butchering of Betty and Patty, as if [the Grays] would even think of eating them,' a lawsuit filed by the family read.

Beloved pet pigs Betty and Patty were shot and almost turned into meat after a butcher took a wrong turn and arrived at a family's hobby farm

Natalie Gray said she saw them in an ad by a local breeder and thought they would be perfect for her family's Gray Acres Farm - which only has pet animals

The shocking mix-up was detailed in the legal complaint filed by the family in Washington Superior Court in Kitsap County on May 30. 

Jonathan Hines, from the local Farmer George Meats, had been asked to slaughter two pigs at a farm on the road the Grays lived on.

Hines' customer was away, so he asked the butcher to go on the property, kill the pigs behind the barn, and take their bodies away for processing.

But Hines, 29, and his friend Dillon Baker, 30, whom he enlisted to help, put the wrong address into the GPS and took a right turn instead of a left.

They drove onto the Grays' farm, broke into the pen the pigs share with eight ducks, and shot Betty and Patty - the gunfire echoing on the family's camera system.

The lawsuit claimed Hines, Baker, and Farmer George Meats 'recklessly inflicted serious and severe emotional distress' along with gross negligence and trespassing.

The family demanded damages 'representing the intrinsic value of Betty and Patty'.

'The law treats Betty and Patty no differently than were they Golden Retrievers or Norwegian Forest Cats,' their lawyer Adam Karp said. 

Natalie said her two daughters, aged 12 and 9, were so devastated the older one cried when she found out and her sister refuses get any more animals in fear of they too would be killed

Natalie said she was distressed to see her pigs suddenly dead after caring for them, and her daughters were inconsolable

Natalie said her two daughters, aged 12 and 9, were so devastated the older one cried when she found out and her sister refuses get any more animals in fear of they too would be killed.

The lawsuit called Betty and Patty 'beloved companion pigs of almost three years' who were adopted in March 2022 to join cats, dogs, ducks, and a chicken.

Natalie said she saw them in an ad by a local breeder and thought they would be perfect for her family's Gray Acres Farm - which only has pet animals.

'They were adorable. They were so cute. They were the size of a small little dog. We haven't had them before. By not eating meat, I heard they were just like dogs and super fun to have, and I wanted my girls to have pigs,' she told Kiro7.

'I would go out every morning and hang out with them and make sure they had the attention they needed before I went to school and would feed them, give them fresh water, make sure their bath was full.'

Natalie said she was distressed to see them suddenly dead after caring for them, and her daughters were inconsolable.

'I came around the corner, and both Patty and Betty were in the pen dead. And Betty had chains wrapped around her feet already. I called police,' she said.

'Now my youngest, she doesn't want that (new animals). She said, well, what happens if someone comes over? I don't want that to happen like it happened to Patty and Betty.'

The butcher realized he'd made a horrible mistake, but the pigs were dead and he offered to give them the meat for free as compensation

Patty and Betty are buried on the property alongside the family's other deceased pet livestock, with tiny headstones

Kitsap County Sheriff's deputies responded to Natalie's 911 call, and according to an incident report found there was no 'maliciousness' by the butcher.

Hines told police he 'messed up when he did not punch the address into his (Google) maps' according to the report, and admitted he 'did everything' and Baker 'was only there assisting him' when he shot the pigs.

Hines said his 'heart dropped' when Nathan and Natalie confronted him and he realized he was on the wrong farm.

'I didn't know what to do. I was just kind of sitting there in shock,' he told the Washington Post.

But he defended himself saying he wouldn't have mixed up the properties if the Grays had left their gate closed.

Hines dragged the pigs to the woods behind the farmhouse and shoveled the bloodstained dirt into a rubbish bin.

Then he left to slaughter the pigs he was actually supposed to kill that day.

Patty and Betty are buried on the property alongside the family's other deceased pet livestock, with tiny headstones.