Way to Go - Fatso

Sep 17, 2009 by Naomi.

The subject of pigs seldom comes up in my thoughts but a volunteer at the McNary National Wildlife Refuge was working on her thesis about the effect of diet composition, digestion, and ecological aspects of Benzoic acid as a feed additive for pigs. I realized how much pork was a part of my life so I delved into pigs and the lives thereof.

Pigs (Sus scrofa domesticus) were domesticated approximately 5,000 to 7,000 years ago in Europe and the Middle East. Pigs were brought into North America by early Spanish explorers.

Classified as an artiodactyle, a herbivorous animal, by Richard Owen in 1857, the pig has an even number of toes unlike the horse which has one, tapir which has three, or elephant which has five. Of its four toes the pig walks on the middle two as do the cow and the sheep.

A pig has a snout for a nose, small eyes, and a small, often thin, curly tail. It has a thick body, short legs, and coarse bristly hair. Compared to other artiodactyles, the head is relatively long, pointed, and free of warts. The long snout is strengthened by a special nasal bone and by a disk of cartilage in the tip. The snout is a very sensitive sense organ, used to dig into the soil to find food. Why does the thought of nosey people come to mind?

Pigs have a full set of 44 teeth. The canine teeth, called tusks, grow continuously and are sharpened by the lowers and uppers rubbing against each other. We have no basis for the expression “eating like a pig” unless we masticate our food with our mouth open. Choump, choump. Or maybe because we eat anything and everything.

Pigs are omnivores. They will scavenge and have been known to eat any kind of food, including dead insects, worms, tree bark, rotting carcasses, and garbage. When we kept pigs years ago we fed them potato peelings and other vegetable matter discarded in food preparation. We simply could not have them rooting around all over the farm.

Pigs are known for their exceptional intelligence, although the word swine may often be implied in a uncomplimentary manner to any living being expressing pig-like behavior. That may refer to laying in the mud but pigs use a separate corner for defecating so they do not live in their own and castoffs as so often humans are wont to do.

Pigs do not have functional sweat glands so they cool themselves using water or mud during hot weather. Mud acts as a form of sunscreen to protect their skin from sunburn as well as protection against flies and parasites. No more can I declare: “I sweat like a pig!” Cows only sweat through their noses so that leaves me sweating like a horse. Only when I work like one so it seems appropriate. I have seen mud baths associated with women’s health spas but who ever would think of pig skin as beautiful? Well maybe a college quarterback. Or an Italian shoe manufacturer.

The presence of trichinosis, Taenia solium, Cysticercosis, and brucellosis is one of the reasons why pork should always be well cooked or cured before eating. Pigs host large concentrations of parasitic ascarid worms in their digestive tract. Some religious groups who consider pork unclean refer to these issues to support their views.

The Chinese calendar includes a year of the pig so it comes around every twelve years. The last time that occurred in the cycle was in 2007, and began on February 18. In Chinese culture, the pig is associated with fertility and virility. Since time immemorial, prospective parents have been told, children born under the pig’s patronage will benefit from the animal’s image as fat, happy and prosperous.

Although not altogether prosperous, I am fat and happy, born in the year of the pig or not.

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