English Resource Booklet 2 - Animal Aid

iLesson 1: Literary Animals 1 Factsheet 2The truth about pigsDid you know...• The ancestor of today’s ‘domestic’ pig is the wild boar,who can still be found in the forests of central Europe.Boars and pigs love foraging for nuts, seeds, rootsand grubs in the woodland undergrowth. They like tobuild nests for their young and to keep their living areasscrupulously clean. Pigs love to wallow in wet mud tocool down in hot weather and to remove pests. Thisis probably where their unfair reputation for beingdirty comes from. Like us, pigs are social animalswho relish the companionship of their own kind.• The BBC programme, Q.E.D., reported researchthat demonstrates how intelligent pigs are. Tests inwhich two pigs were taught to play simple computergames in return for food rewards showed that theyperformed the tasks better than dogs and displayedlearning abilities similar to chimpanzees.• In 1995, sales of pork in the US fell by 10% afterthe popular film, Babe, starred a loveable young pigsuccessfully taking over the role of a sheepdog.• Dick King Smith, whose book The Sheep-Piginspired the film, said: ‘If we find that pigs are asintelligent as we suspect, we are up against anotherproblem. Take other intelligent creatures like dogs: wedon’t eat dogs – some people do, but we don’t. Takechimpanzees – some people eat them, but we don’t.Now what are we going to say about pigs?’• Pigs have an excellent sense of smell. The Frenchtraditionally use them to sniff out truffles (a form offungus that is a prized food delicacy). Only pigs candetect the ripe truffles that grow deep under the soilon the roots of trees.• Marion runs a farm animal sanctuary in Kent andhas 30 pigs to look after. She has got to knowthem all very well.‘Living with the pigs day in day out, you becomefamiliar with them as individuals. You soon find outwhat sensitive, playful and intelligent creatures theyare. I’ve taught some of the piglets to sit which onlytook moments for them to learn. I find they are somuch quicker on the uptake than dogs. I will neverunderstand how people can treat them so badly –incarcerating them in factory farms and killing themto eat.’Marion with four ofher rescued piglets6