Hamilton, a 500-pound hero pig, has been credited with saving his veteran owner from a fire that took over their New Jersey home.

The New York Post reported that Hamilton helped his 30-year-old Navy vet escape a fire last month. Gilbert Anaya told The New York Post that Hamilton, his emotional support animal, gave him extra time to escape. The pig closed a door in the garage as the fire grew, which slowed the fire’s progression.

“The fire department said him closing the door bought me 15 to 20 minutes,”Anaya told The Post on Thursday.“If he didn’t close the door, the fire and smoke would have spread faster.”

Firefighters reported to the scene and were able to put the fire out, which had been caused by a surge protector that short-circuited. This caused poor Hamilton’s bedding to catch on fire which awoke the animal from his bed in the garage. Anaya reportedly trained Hamilton to open and close doors, so when he left the garage, he shut the door behind him.

“It was basically licking the wood and support beams,”Anaya said about the intensifying fire.“I was literally sleeping against the wall that was on fire.”

When Anaya woke up, he was worried about Hamilton and rushed to find him and finally found him calmly grazing in the yard.

The vet and Hamilton are staying with a friend for the time being. People often forget how intelligent these creatures are, yet we senselessly kill billions every year. According to Sentient Media, in 2019 approximately 3.5 million pigs were slaughtered every single day, meaning 1.9 billion pigs lost their lives for human consumption that year. These smart and sentient animals deserve long and happy lives, not the short and traumatizing lives we give them. Sign this petition to stop cruel pig farming!