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Teen who won fight loses bid to show pig
His porker is too light for the disabled young man to exhibit the animal at a Polk County fair.
©Associated Press
March 17, 2003
BARTOW -- A disabled teenager who persuaded Polk County Youth Fair officials to reverse their ban on his wheelchair won't be taking his pig to the fair after all.
Even feeding eggs to Bacon the pig after it suffered a stomach virus didn't fatten the porker enough to meet the 220-pound weight requirement.
"He weighed in at 216," Justin Kelley, 17, said after the pigs hit the scales Saturday. "I was disappointed."
Justin's mother, Tammy, says she has no regrets about her son's well-publicized battle to reverse the fair board's position that it's a liability risk to allow Justin's wheelchair in the livestock arena. Justin has cerebral palsy and uses either a wheelchair or walker for mobility.
But the board was criticized by state officials and media coverage, and later said its executive committee had acted in haste by barring Kelley because of his wheelchair.
"It absolutely was worth it because other kids have been turned down before, and maybe the board will think twice before turning down somebody else because they have a disability," Tammy Kelley said.
Bacon went on a special protein feed and Justin added eggs to his diet after the virus hit in January.
"We thought we were going to be close, but we'd be there. That just didn't happen. But that's what this program is all about," said the Lake Wales High School senior. "It's a business and, this time, ours didn't cut it. We're here to learn about agriculture as a business."
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