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April 25, 2013

Thirteen Facts About Pigs

Thursday Thirteen

Since many of my discussions with my sister this week have centered on farming and animals I thought I’d do a TT on pigs.

Thirteen Facts About Pigs

Pig, Royal Easter Show, Sydney

1. The domestic pig are descendants of the wild boars of Europe and Africa.

2. Male pigs are called boars. Female pigs are called sows. Baby pigs are called piglets. A group of pigs is a herd.

3. Pigs are highly intelligent and can be taught tricks. Remember the movie, Babe?

4. Pigs can be very dangerous, especially wild pigs, and they’re very speedy when they want to be. Just ask my sister!

5. Some pigs have curly tails while others have straight tales.

6. The valves from pig hearts are used to replace damaged ones in humans.

7. Pigs have an excellent sense of smell. They’re expert at finding truffles.

8. Pigs live for 9 – 15 years, although some of the sows my father owns are much older  (around 20)

9. Pigs are very clean animals in that they don’t soil their sleeping areas or where they eat.

10. Sows bear 8 – 12 piglets in a litter and can have two litters a year.

11. Pigs can get sunburned (especially pink pigs) and require shelter from the sun.

12. Pigs don’t have sweat glands, and they wallow in mud to cool down.

13. Pigs make good pets, but a prospective owner should definitely do their research first.

Do you like bacon for breakfast? Crispy or not?

My answer: No, ’cause I eat a mainly vegetarian diet. I do like the smell of bacon cooking though. Hubby likes bacon but not crispy.

33 Comments

  1. Anthony North

    Great info. One of the UK’s celebrity chefs has a pet pig called Lunch.

    • Shelley Munro

      I’d be a bit worried if I were that pig :)

  2. sandy1943

    quite a list loving your pics below in Turkey

  3. CountryDew

    Our neighbor raised pigs. You could smell them for miles when the wind was right.

    • Shelley Munro

      Yes, they can be a bit smelly en mass!

  4. Kimberly Menozzi

    Here in Reggio Emilia, you can always find pig farms on the outskirts of town (this is, after all, the area where prosciutto – a.k.a. Parma ham – comes from). Luckily, I live in town, so I don’t get treated to the fragrance. But take a ride with the windows down outside of town, and… HOO-BOY! That’s powerful stuff!

    Happy TT to you!

    (And for the record: I like my bacon a bit chewy.) ;)

    • Shelley Munro

      I feel sorry for the people living closer to the farms. There used to be a cowshed near us and also silage piles. They were very fragrant when the wind blew in our direction. They’re gone now, cleared to make way for a housing estate.

  5. Pearl

    I’ve heard the theory that bacon smells good not because it’s the latent cannibalism in human, even to vegans, but because it has universal survival traits of fat smell and smoke fires. It’s

    • Shelley Munro

      You could be right. I’d never eat it but I can appreciate the aroma.

  6. Pearl

    Pigs farms only smell because of the kind of agribusiness, pig jailblocks like the chicken barns of thousands. a pig is as you say, naturally smart and clean. the rank smell probably distresses the pigs as much as the humans.

    • Shelley Munro

      I’m not a fan of this type of farming. My father used to have quite a few pigs, but they were free range. He doesn’t have as many now that he is older.

  7. Jennifer Leeland

    I just like bacon but crispy is my favorite.

    • Shelley Munro

      Crispy bacon seems to be an American thing. At least my unscientific observations tell me this.

    • Shelley Munro

      That must be funny, yet frustrating for the organizers.

  8. Maria Zannini

    We have wild hogs in our area and they are very dangerous. Fortunately, I’ve never seen them on my property, maybe because I have big dogs.

    We do plan to raise one pig a year once Greg retires. There is nothing like farm-raised pork.

    Oh, for the record, I like my bacon chewy, just short of snapping crisp.

    • Shelley Munro

      My father has wild boars visiting his pigs to be “sociable”
      I’ve heard my dad’s tales of gored dogs etc when he used to hunt. They are very dangerous. I can’t imagine hunting them with spears as they must have done generations ago.

  9. Alice Audrey

    We like bacon now and then, but not regularly and rarely have time for it for breakfast.

    I can’t seem to visualize a pig with a straight tail.

    • Shelley Munro

      Most of the ones I’ve seen have a sort of corkscrew action, but I guess it’s no different from dog’s tails. They can go either way.

  10. Colleen@LooseLeafNotes

    They are certainly cleaner than chickens. I enjoyed learning about pigs today.

    • Shelley Munro

      Chickens can be very messy!

    • Shelley Munro

      I took this photo at the Sydney show. I always enjoy checking out the animals.

  11. Angela Brown

    I do enjoy the takes of ham and some delicious friend pork chops, but have leaned more toward turkey bacon recently. Now, put some tasty pork bacon in front of me, crispy or slightly chewy, and it will get eaten :-)

    • Shelley Munro

      Turkey isn’t as big over here, but I’ve seen something similar in our supermarkets. It’s much lower in fat, right?

  12. Gerri Bowen

    Interesting! I like bacon crisp.

    • Shelley Munro

      Another vote for crisp bacon :)

  13. Adelle Laudan

    We had a pet pig, Jenny. So cute when we picked her up from the farm. So, not cute about a year or so later.
    Pigs can be VERY territorial. In my case, she became that way over my partner. Before the break up, I was actually scared of her at times. She could be very aggressive.
    I have a Pig tattoo of her. lol
    Happy T13!

    • Shelley Munro

      I know that the sows can be very dangerous if you get too close to their litters. Dad has many stories about checking on his pigs and having to take to his scrappers to escape an irate mother.

  14. Ron.

    Pigs, like cats, are comfort food.

  15. Sandra Cox

    Good info. No bacon for me.

  16. Heather

    The things you miss when your computer decides to act up… While I do like bacon, sausage and pork ribs/roast, I’ve not been very fond of pigs themselves since a certain episode of “Criminal Minds” a few years back. That’s the one episode I can’t watch in reruns.