Carole Germain claims to be the first pig podiatrist in France. (representative)
Brest:
A French bartender who calls himself a pig pedicurist is now enjoying a booming career.
Carole Germain has never been busier, crisscrossing France in a van with her pet porker Couscous, caring for the tusks of the country’s most beloved pig and hooves.
“It’s crazy. I thought I was the only one with someone occupying the sofa. But there were thousands of people,” said the 46-year-old, who runs a tobacco bar in Brest, a port in Brittany, western France.
Kooskus, who weighed 60 kilograms (132 pounds), also slept in her bed.
“I actually sleep in his bed (as far as he’s concerned) and if I move too much, he’ll coo and even pinch me,” she laughs.
Germain, who also has two Italian mastiffs, adopted her pig in 2020, only to find it taking up more and more space in her small apartment above her bar.
Soon, his tusks and hooves needed trimming, too, which is how she realized the need for a pig pedicurist.
“After a while, they grow too big and the poor pigs become very disabled,” she told AFP.
“Not long ago, I cut a three centimeter (one inch) long tusk out of the animal’s cheek.”
Not for the faint of heart
Germain, who claims to be France’s first pig podiatrist, was trained in the Netherlands and started practicing part-time.
But demand has been so great, she says – she once treated 43 pigs on a trot in the south of France – that she has now sold her bar and is focusing entirely on pig pedicures.
Even so, this is not a job for the faint of heart.
Germain had to flip Scooby, a large black pig weighing 80 kilograms, onto his back so he could be groomed on the outskirts of Brest – after a certain amount of protest from the piglet. The operation was completed.
But when his hooves and tusks are trimmed, he’s much less wild.
“He’s ready for the beach,” Germain quipped as Scooby bounced with new steps.
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen him sprint,” said Scooby owner Yann L’Heveder, an air traffic controller who bought him for his daughter’s 10th birthday. This pig.
“It must have been like a rock in our shoe.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
