With 675 million pigs in the world, on every continent except Antarctica, pigs earned their own special day. National Pig Day is not just to celebrate bacon, ribs, ham, and all the other goodies pigs deliver to help sustain humans. This is a day to learn about an animal most of us simply take for granted. There are hundreds of breeds, most of which have descended from the Eurasian wild boar.
We’ve heard all the stereotypes… a messy room is a pigsty, or someone sweats like a pig. In truth, pigs are very clean animals. They wallow in the mud to stay cool, as they are not even able to sweat. They would much prefer a lovely swimming pool, and they are good swimmers.
Many people know that pigs are clever and very intelligent. They make great pets and can be trained and taught tricks. Pigs are born with the intelligence of a 3-year-old human toddler and rank as the 5th smartest animal, smarter and more trainable than any breed of dog. They have excellent memories and can even play video games better than some humans. (Who tried this to know?)
After a pregnancy of 3 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days, a female (or sow) can produce 10 piglets in a single litter, each weighing about 2.5 pounds at birth. That weight will double in the first week, but they are born able to walk and run. Pigs can run as fast as 11 miles per hour!
A mother pig sings to her babies while nursing. Pigs constantly communicate with each other via more than 20 distinct grunts and squeals. However, pigs have poor eyesight, but their sense of smell is 2,000 times more sensitive than ours.
Few animals are more social than pigs, and they are known to form close bonds with other pigs and humans too, which has helped make them easy to domesticate. They also enjoy belly rubs. Like humans, pigs spend 1/3 of their day sleeping. And they dream. They also like sleeping nose-to-nose with one another.
As adorable as they are, I am unlikely to stop eating pork products. That said, I am a believer in open-range, healthy living conditions for all the creatures that are raised to feed us. We all need to say, “No” to factory-farmed pork, along with beef, chicken, etc.
I will close with some information that I had previously been unaware existed. For decades, pig heart valves have been successfully being used to replace heart valves in humans. So, celebrate the process called xenotransplantation.
Here’s oinking at you!
