Diane Warren took Wilbur home on Thursday after a silent auction at the West L.A. Animal Shelter settled the runaway pig’s fate. The Grammy-winning songwriter now turns a viral West Hollywood rescue into a permanent placement at a seven-acre animal sanctuary in Malibu.
West Hollywood to Malibu
Four people showed up at the shelter on Thursday hoping to adopt Wilbur, and Marcia Zwilling made the winning bid on behalf of Warren. The adoption followed news clips of the pig running loose near Laurel Avenue over the weekend, clips that pushed the shelter visit from a simple pickup into a competitive auction.
Marcia Zwilling, the managing director of the Diane Warren Foundation, said, “Diane saw the news clips and saw the little pig running in West Hollywood and she just called me and said, 'Please get the pig, get the pig!'” The auction format mattered because it sorted interest quickly: instead of a first-come claim or an open-ended hold, the shelter had one decision point and one winner.
Thursday at the shelter
ABC7 was present when Warren met Wilbur for the first time on Thursday, and she framed the moment with a joke that fits the day’s odd economy of losses and gains: “I lose Oscars but I won a pig... it's fun. It's fun.” It was a clean trade in public view, one trophy for another, except this one came with a snout and four legs.
Wilbur had already been captured, taken to the West L.A. Animal Shelter, and left unclaimed when an owner did not come forward. That made Thursday’s auction less of a celebrity purchase than a rescue handoff with a deadline attached, and it gave the shelter a practical way to place an animal that had already become a West Hollywood story over the weekend.
Wilbur and Hollywood
The move to Malibu also creates a small naming problem. Warren already has a pig named Wilbur at her animal sanctuary, so she is considering changing the new pig’s name to Hollywood, a choice that keeps the new arrival distinct without turning the sanctuary into a duplicate registry.
Marcia Zwilling said Wilbur will be living his best life with other animal friends and eating gourmet salads every day, which sounds like a punch line until you remember the basic outcome here: the pig leaves the shelter for a seven-acre animal sanctuary rather than sitting in limbo. Warren’s bid closed the loop on a viral animal story with an actual placement, not just a wave of attention, and the only unanswered piece left in the transaction is the winning bid amount.
