A Chinese woman who thought she had bought a pet micro-pig three years ago ended up with a 150-kg regular pig usually bred for its meat.

In 2018, Zhang Li, a young woman living in Shanghai, decided to get a pet animal for company. She wasn’t really a cat or dog person, so she started looking for an alternative, and thought she had found it when she saw an advertisement for a micro-pig. She did her research, and learn that the miniature pigs made great pets; they were adorable, grew only about the size of a small dog, and were very intelligent. So she decided to take the plunge and get one for herself, not knowing that she would end up with a 150kg beast as a pet.

It didn’t take long for Zhang Li to notice that the small piglet she bought kept growing past the size micro-pigs are supposed to be, but by that time, both she and her family and friends had grown attached to it, so she couldn’t bring herself to give it up.

The so-called micro pig turned out to be a Bama Xiangzhu, a breed of pig bred for its delicious, tender meat. They have short legs, thin skin and a healthy appetite. They don’t really like exercise, though, so they tend to get very fat; Zhang’s pet, for example, is about 150-cm-long, and weighs over 150 kilograms. It eats 5 to 6 times a day.

Zhang Li often takes her pet pig out for walks, and gets strange looks from passers-by, who sometimes stop to take photos with it. But the woman doesn’t mind the attention, what does bother her though is the pigs laziness. If it gets too tired, it will lay down and the only way to get it back on its feet is to lure it with food.

Still, Zhang loves her pet “micro-pig”, and wouldn’t part with it for anything or anyone, telling Chinese media that if she ever gets married, the pig will definitely be part of the family.

Interestingly, micro-pig scams are not rare at all. In fact, a couple of years ago The Guardian published a piece on the subject, documenting multiple cases of people who bought micro-pigs that proved to be anything but micro.