When a swine flu broke out in the Caribbean in the early 1980’s, the U.S. became fearful the epidemic might penetrate the American pork industry. So the U.S. put pressure on the Haitian government to eradicate the native creole pig population. Many rural families depended on those pigs for their livelihood. Salena Tramel is the program coordinator for the Middle East and Haiti for Grassroots International. She oversees a their creole pig repopulation project in Haiti. Salena says before the eradication there were more than 400,000 creole pigs in Haiti.

(Watch a video about the creole pig produced by Grassroots International here.)