Faine Greenwood: I also think that anyone who claims that pigs could easily be taught and trained to do everything that companion and working dogs can do is not actually familiar with either working dogs or pigs. (And that pigs have to WANT to do this). Very different species with very different motivations!

I also think that anyone who claims that pigs could easily be taught and trained to do everything that companion and working dogs can do is not actually familiar with either working dogs or pigs. (And that pigs have to WANT to do this). Very different species with very different motivations!

I think some anti-meat activists really gloss over how humanity spent 1000s of years molding dogs + cats into companions and co-workers who pretty intuitively understand our emotions- we haven’t done this with pigs and cows. It’s not exactly shocking that many people thus don’t want to eat pets.

When domestic pigs get out, they go feral in a single generation. When dogs get out, coyotes start behaving like domesticated dogs in one generation.

This is interesting. Can you recommend a source where I could learn more about this?

I suspect that a big part of that is that pigs have been selectively bred for different traits. There’s a definite difference between wild and domesticated animals, but there are some that take to it easier than others. Striped skunks are oddly good pets, for example. Raccoons… not so much.

Fun data point: while it's well known that pigs are traditionally used for truffling, and are in fact better scenting truffles, modern practice typically uses dogs, who unlike pigs can actually be trained not to eat the truffles or destroy mycelia

Yep. A pig does not wish to please.

Neither does a dog, as far as I can tell. Dogs want to please themselves, surely?

We have absolutely hard-coded dogs over thousands of years of selective breeding to care about our opinions, especially the working breeds.

Dogs know that making humans happy will get them treated well

yes but dogs understand that figuring out how to please us is an easier way to get what they want than trying to survive on their own

I bet they could* * with 60,000 years of careful husbandry

One of those weird little facts that I picked up somewhere like Trivial Pursuit or something is that the hardest part of teaching a pig to hunt truffles is teaching the pig not to eat the truffles before the human can bag them.

If things get really out of hand and all else fails, I can out-muscle most leashed dogs. With a pig, I am but a passenger. This seems like a problem in public spaces.

Friend got a teacup pig as a gift. Pretty soon, her house and garden were being rebuilt to accommodate a MASSIVE livestock animal. But if that's what you want, go nuts.

You can train pigs to do a lot of things, but it is a pain in the ass, takes longer than a dog, and yeah totally dependant on the pig's personality, which is generally not cooperative

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Churchill once remarked: "Dogs look up to men, cats look down on men, pigs see men as their equals."

Pigs will eat us and the other pets if given the chance, that's why Bacon was invented.

to be fair dogs will also do this

But that's for different reasons. Usually.

Yeah, and my impression--granted, 90% from crime fiction--is that pigs are often more...proactive. Like, your dog will probably eat you if you die, but a pen full of pigs will eat you if you fall down--I think, not an expert in any way.

i only want a pig for meat bacon is best but a ham shank is just as good

I believe sapiens actually co-evolved with dogs. The bond is very deep.

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