In his new book, author Matthew Algeo talks about Abraham Lincoln as a deeply compassionate person. The former president’s respect for life extended beyond his fellow men to the smallest of animals. In the new book, Abe & Fido: Lincoln’s Love of Animals and the Touching Story of His Favorite Canine Companion, Algeo goes into detail about the whole topic and how much Lincoln loved his pooch.

Here’s what Algeo told the Huffington Post:

“One of his earliest memories was of a piglet he adopted from a neighbor. When the animal grew into a fat pig, his father butchered it for food. Given the family’s meager circumstances at the time, this was perfectly understandable. But it made a deep impression on Lincoln, and probably fostered his progressive views on animal welfare.

I will quote Lincoln himself to fully answer:

“I saw the hog, dressed, hanging from the pole near the barn. I began to blubber. I just couldn’t reconcile myself to my loss. I could not stand it, and went far back into the woods again, where I found some nuts that satisfied my hunger till night, when I returned home. They could not get me to take any of the meat; neither tenderloin, nor sausage, nor souse; and even months after, when the cured ham came on the table, it made me sad and sick to look at it.”