Jeremy Clarkson reveals being left sleepless by sending his Diddly Squat Farm animals to the abattoir
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Jeremy Clarkson has said that he has had issues sleeping at night after being forced to part ways with some of his most beloved animals at his Diddly Squat Farm. The TV presenter had previously been seen crying on camera on his show Clarkson’s Farm when he sent his sheep off to be slaughtered for the first time.
But now, the Who Wants to be a Millionaire presenter has opened up in a column in the Sunday Times about having to send off seven of his male pigs in the last few weeks, an event he said was even more heartbreaking. The former Top Gear presenter, 62, admitted that the “gut-wrenching” loss has left him sleepless at night thinking of the animals’ well-being after leaving his Chipping Norton farm.
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Hide AdIn the piece, Mr Clarkson wrote: “It was bad enough with the sheep and worse with the cows. But last week I had to take seven of my boy pigs to be killed and that was gut-wrenching. I know that I’m trying to be a farmer and that this is what farmers do.
“And I know I will enjoy the bacon and ham and pork chops that result,” he continued. “But it’s not easy, taking seven happy, healthy pigs from their woodland home to their deaths.”
Explaining how it would seem very “Jeremyish” to enjoy taking his farm animals to the abattoir, he said that in fact, like most other farmers, he absolutely hates it: “I can never sleep properly the night before they go, and all the way to the slaughterhouse I have what feels like a hot cricket ball in the pit of my stomach. And then when it’s finally time to say goodbye, I always become a little bit unmanly.”
But the Diddly Squat tragedy didn’t end there for the Grand Tour host. Because only shortly after getting rid of the boys, one of the female pigs accidentally killed 10 of her own piglets shortly after giving birth.
The incident, which saw the pig sit on her babies, prompted Mr Clarkson and his partner Lisa Hogan to name the animal Clumsy.
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