A vegan student on an animal care course is fighting to save four pigs due for slaughter.

Izzy Ross thought teachers were joking when they told her the adorable piglets would ‘soon be bacon’ when she started at Hopwood Hall College in Rochdale last year.

She soon discovered the four gilts were set for the chop - and has now made it her mission to save them from the slaughterhouse.

The college has denied staff made jokes about the pigs being killed and the issue of animal welfare is taken extremely seriously.

Izzy, 18, says the one-year-old pigs, which she has helped care for as part of her course at the college’s Middleton campus , will be killed next week.

She has teamed up with her mum Sarah-Jane to stop them being slaughtered.

They have written to course leaders pleading with them not to send the pigs away, but say they have been ignored.

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Izzy, who lives in Diggle in Saddleworth, said: “Within the first few weeks of starting the course, they started making jokes that the pigs would ‘be bacon soon’.

“It seemed like a joke at first, but I didn’t find it funny. I later found out they were being serious.

“I’ve complained to them, but they’ve just ignored me. I’ve found it really upsetting.

“I’ve helped look after them and have become really attached to them.

“They told us we couldn’t give the pigs names because we’d get attached.

“I’ve started my course now, so I feel like I have to finish, but I wouldn’t have enrolled if I had have known this was going to happen.”

Izzy, who wants to work in animal conservation and rescue after her studies, said college bosses won’t tell her why the pigs are going to be killed.

Mum Sarah-Jane, 50, said: “We don’t agree that this is how animals should be treated - especially at a learning facility.

“Students are being taught how to care for animals, then they’re sending pigs to be slaughtered

“They haven’t told students there are choices in these matters - they’ve not offered them an alternative view.

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“It’s as though they’re saying ‘that’s life’ and that’s it. It’s typical brainwashing and social conditioning.

“We’re absolutely appalled. To teach them how to look after animals, to then send these pigs to the misery of an abattoir to be brutally killed is the ultimate betrayal.”

A college spokeswoman said: “Raising animals for food in an ethical way is a key learning outcome on many of the courses we deliver. Animals that will be humanly dispatched are raised specifically for this purpose and students are made aware of this. We adhere to the 2006 Animal Welfare Act and are inspected by the RSPCA who check we adhere to legislation.

“We teach all our learners to openly discuss all issues around animal care, welfare and management and offer a broad curriculum that prepares our learners for employment in the industry.

“In addition, all our staff are fully qualified with a wide range of experience over and above their teaching qualifications. Current staff include a vet, wildlife specialist, zoologist, animal behaviour expert and more, enabling Hopwood Hall College to give our learners a broad and unbiased view of the industry in which they wish to work.

“If any learner objects to a lesson on moral or religious grounds they can make a choice not to participate.”