Mutant pig foetus being worshipped as Ganesh

As should be obvious Ganesh is our favourite Hindu deity, from his early milk-drinking days to his appearing as a plant in New York to my writing his comic adventures (which, by the way. has received some great reviews) and now a miracle emerges from Thailand:

The talk of the town in Thalang in recent weeks is the birth of a deformed piglet that locals feel bears a striking resemblance to Ganesha, the elephant-headed Hindu deity worshiped by many Thai Buddhists.

The reason for their conviction is a large growth of tissue protruding from the piglet’s head that bears a striking resemblance to an elephant’s trunk, complete with two small holes where an elephant’s nostrils would be.

The only other major difference between this piglet and a normal piglet is that its over-sized eyes protrude out from its eye sockets. The piglet was also born white, while the other piglets in the litter were all black.

Sadly, its resemblance to a Hindu deity didn’t do much to help this little piggy in the real world: after being born in a litter of nine piglets on May 24, it died two days later while all the others survived.

The remains of the piglet, now floating in a Mason jar full of formaldehyde, sit atop a makeshift shrine at the home of its owner, 38-year-old Banjert Khamwiset.

...

“At first I thought it was just a deformed piglet, but when I examined it further I realized it was truly unique. Only one in a million piglets in Thailand are born with a trunk like that of the son of Shiva,” he said.

One man’s mutant is another man’s miracle. Before long, people from the neighborhood came to marvel at the piglet, offering flowers, lighting joss sticks and saying prayers – many hoping the dead porker would somehow convey to them the winning numbers in the upcoming underground lottery draw.

The pickled piglet did not let them down either. Many chose to play combinations based on Mr Banjert’s house number, 14/41, and reportedly came up winners.

A scientist suggests it is a developmental anomaly and:

Concluding that the piglet was just a freak of nature, he cautioned people not to believe in superstition and black magic

Wise words, but ones that rather remove the wonder in people worshipping a pickled pig foetus that helps them win the lottery.

Source

Hat tip

Update

As Min reminds us in the comments we have dealt with a similar case, this cyclops pig has a smaller but similar looking trunk-like growth on its forehead:

Gordon's own one-eyed porker (no sniggering at the back now!!) has a larger one (no jokes please), the original article is down but you can get an overview over at Cryptomundo:

So we may be seeing different stages of the same birth abnormality. It also means Gordon's cycclops pig is much better than the one currently being worshipped!! I feel a pilgrimage coming on.