Pigs are sensitive, social, and emotional individuals
with unique personalities, displaying
different traits with respect to
agreeableness, extraversion, and openness.
Pigs form deep emotional bonds with both humans and other
animals. They recognize and remember
individuals, seek out companionship, and
show affection through physical touch,
vocalizations, and even protective
behaviors. Studies have shown that pigs
experience distress when separated from
their bonded companions and exhibit joy
when reunited, highlighting their strong
capacity for emotional connection.
Pigs often sleep nose to nose with their closest friends
and even dream like humans do. Some of
them are actually quite particular about
how they make their beds, even going as
far as to decorate with sticks and
flowers, and making sure their nesting
area has the right amount of hay!
Contrary to what most people unfairly believe, pigs are
actually very clean. When they have enough
space, they never use the place where they
eat or sleep to urinate or defecate. And
if you’re wondering about their mud baths,
they do so because the mud helps cool
their bodies on the hottest days and acts
as a sunscreen and bug repellent for their
delicate skin, which has few protective
hairs as a consequence of our selective
breeding.
Pigs are very curious and love to
play. They play with toys and with random
objects, with other pigs and with humans
too. They are even capable of playing
video games with a screen and joystick when trained.
Pigs experience "emotional contagion" which is the ability to recognise and mimic the emotional states of their peers and is the basis for empathy. They have even been seen to exhibit altruistic behavior, helping out other pigs in need.
It might surprise people to learn that pigs are very intelligent. They can learn tricks and commands just like our canine companions, and even learn how to solve puzzles by observing their peers.
A pig's language is complex. They use more than 20 types of sounds to communicate. In fact, mother pigs create unique vocalizations for their piglets. Newborn piglets can recognise their mothers' voices and their own name by the time they are just two weeks old. Sows have even been known to 'sing' to their young whilst nursing.
Pigs have excellent long-term memory and can recognize their own best friends whether animals or humans, and they can remember them -and other things they gain an understanding of- long after learning them.
Pigs are one of the few species of animals observed using tools. They have been seen using bark and sticks as shovels to help them move dirt in their nest.
Amazingly, at just two months old, pigs understand how to use mirrors to help them find hidden food. Very few species can do this -in fact humans aren’t able to do so until we are nearly two years old!
Pigs have excellent long-term memory and can recognize their own best friends whether animals or humans, and they can remember them -and other things they gain an understanding of- long after learning them.
Pigs are one of the few species of animals observed using tools. They have been seen using bark and sticks as shovels to help them move dirt in their nest.
Amazingly, at just two months old, pigs understand how to use mirrors to help them find hidden food. Very few species can do this -in fact humans aren’t able to do so until we are nearly two years old!
The meat industry kills around 1.4 billion pigs every year around the world, which means that every day around 4 million pigs are killed for human consumption. Despite that insanely high number, this only makes them the world’s fourth most exploited vertebrate animal, after fish, chickens, and ducks.
China is the world’s largest producer of pig meat, killing 705 million pigs a year. The United States isn’t far behind, with a production of nearly 130 million pigs killed each year, with 98% of them intensively raised in factory farms, in conditions so horrific it’s like something straight out of a horror film.
Pigs are typically artificially inseminated using sperm that has been forcibly taken from males. Sows are used as “breeders” as if they were live incubators, a far cry from a natural life.
After giving birth, the mother and her piglets spend weeks in a farrowing or gestation crate, which is a tiny pen with a central cage that severely restricts their mother’s movement, preventing her from even being able to turn around or cuddle her babies.
When the piglets eventually outgrow the farrowing crate, the mother will ultimately end up back in it to repeat the process litter after litter. She will continue this until she’s no longer able to carry out her pregnancy. At this point, she’ll be sent to slaughter, no longer deemed a profitable commodity.
Farmers typically kill the piglets that are born too small by immediately hitting them in the head, often described as ‘thumping’. Of the piglets surviving birth, 10% to 18% will not make it to weaning age, succumbing to disease, starvation, dehydration, or accidental crushing by their unnaturally large mothers.
Most pigs live in extreme confinement, which drives some animals to cannibalism due to stress. To prevent this, it’s common for piglets to have their tails, teeth, and testicles removed on the spot without anaesthesia.
Farmed pigs often receive drugs that promote muscle instead of fat growth and make them gain weight quicker. They’re also given many antibiotics as the cramped, filthy conditions they’re forced to live in are perfect for the spreading of infectious diseases.
Most farmed pigs receive no veterinary treatment, which causes many to die before being killed in slaughterhouses. Many pigs in factory farms are forced to live around their excrement, never having the chance to witness sunlight or breath fresh air.
If given the chance, a pig can live for up to 20 years, but the meat industry kills pigs at an average age of 3 to 6 months -an age equivalent to a human toddler!
Pigs are eventually transported in cramped trucks, trains, or boats to slaughterhouses, where they will be brutally killed in front of each other.
The most common method of killing pigs in the US, Australia, and Europe, is using gas chambers, where they suffocate with CO2 gas for more than a minute, resulting in an agonising death. Other pigs die having their throats cut -often still conscious even if previously stunned with electrical currents- and then transported to a scalding tank. To make this worse, they’re sometimes still alive when thrown into the tank, thrashing around in agony as they burn alive.
