Strike Factory

It was widely reported inside and outside the UK (hat tip Louise Riley!), that British childrens toy shop The Early Learning Centre had taken a pig out of one of its farm sets so it did not upset Muslim and Jewish (As in the Torah and Quran it is forbidden to eat Pork!) religious groups! This follows on from the supposed craziness of political correctness that includes Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep from a few years earlier and when I used to help out at a disabled care organisation I had to call blind people 'visually impaired'!

I decided to pay a visit to the Early Learning Centre store at County Mall, Crawley to find out if there was some truth in the news was it something blown out of proportion by The Sun or is it really true? First thing that struck me on arrival at the shop was the massive presence of cute little cuddly toy pigs at one end of the shop. I began my search for the farm set! I managed to find a farm set that included a pig for older kids on my search around the shop! Eventually I came across a farm set for 3-8 years the packaging showed a farmer, a cow a sheep, a chicken but no pig mentioned at all on the packaging! Was this the farm set the world has been banging on about? Eventually I went to the till to ask some kind ladys about this farm set! They claimed they had received no complaints from any religious groups, they said there was a pig that was optional with the farm for free of charge, and that it had been taken out for some bizarre religious reasons!

So there was some truth in the farm set but the pig is still available for those pork lovers!

Note a contact from Scotland has informed me that the Early Learning Centre issued a statement that the pig was being reinstated due to complaints from mothers! Although it was still packaged without a pig when I saw it, I suppose the pig is the option I was told about!