Hi, I kept my first livestock last year and had two Gloucester Old Spots. Everyone kept telling me how I would fall in love with them and never want to be parted and, as I love animals, I was very apprehensive but we bought a house with land and it seemed criminal not to put it to use. I had so wanted to go down the line of a mobile slaughterman but they really don't seem to exist. I dreaded the whole abattoir thing but, weirdly, I was fine with it all. Not the nicest, cleanest place. No soft music and beds of hay as I had hoped for. I think for me the key was not to get too involved with them emotionally. I didn't treat them as pets. I was kind and careful and I even scratched their heads and tummies occasionally but I never 'cooed' to them or really talked to them and tried hard not to look them in the eye. When I was getting them used to going in and out of the trailer I just put a trail of food, stood back and waited, no coaxing as that would have entailed communication and I couldn't do it or I knew I wouldn't be letting them go and would have expensive pigs as pets. The only names they had was Mr Pork and Miss Bacon. They saw me as a being that fed them and they were relaxed in my company. To be honest, they want their own kind, it is us who think they want to be looked after like a human baby, it fulfills some desire in us. My advice is perhaps to follow suit?? You are left with the knowledge they were well looked after and treated with respect. I am not a cold person but falling in love with them doesn't help your situation. I am loving the respite from looking after them (I am not cut out to be a full-time farmer) and looking forward to repeating the experience later this spring, perhaps another rare breed. Good luck and enjoy it