In this week’s episode of “Meet Your Meat,” HarperCollins saves a photogenic porcine pin-up from his fate at the end of an axe. Boonkinja links to an NBC story about HarperCollins’ search for a fresh cover model for their new edition of the children’s classic Charlotte’s Web, which led to a Tennessee farm and a picture-perfect piggy named – of course – Wilbur. “That little pig was irresistible,” said Maria Modugno, a vice-president with HarperCollins. “The pig leapt off the page.”

But then they learned that their cover-pig was destined for the dinner table – as if he had other, more important piggly places to be. “This pig is headed for pork chops, which is a little bit horrifying,” said Modugno. Pleas for the porker’s life were sent Farmer John’s way, and even his wife got in on the act, saying, “John, you know in the book, the farmer was not the good guy.” Poor Farmer John caved into his guilt: “I’m not going to be the bad old farmer, I’m going to be the good farmer.”

So the pig gets to live happily ever after, Farmer John is out some money, and we’ll bet that the Wilbur advocates will continue to tuck into nice plates of bacon and porkchops for the rest of their days, while smiling about that cute wee piglet they helped save once.

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Read the NBC article here