My displeasure with pigs

I hope you feel my loathing from here

This week we were graced with the addition of three new piglets. Now up until this point I have not been overly impressed with these animals where bacon comes from. While I do appreciate that they are great at eating the scraps from the hotel kitchen (and occasionally ours), for the most part I fail to see their value.

“What about bacon!” I hear you cry, well I suppose you may think it’s all worthwhile. However I doubt many people really have an appreciation for all the effort it takes to raise animals. Now by no means am I an expert, but from my observations here all I can say is that the pigs take more time than the vegetable garden chores. They are also the reason I am continually covered in dirt.

I am not at the point of resenting this hairy creatures, yet at the same time I have my issues with them. For starters I hate their squeals. Perhaps it is because they squeal at everything: dogs, each other, when they are hungry, when they are annoyed with each other, when they sleep, when they are attacked by vampire bats (okay that one is probably fair game), etc. They squeal anytime they think you have food for them. They squeal the entire time you are preparing food. And mostly I think they are just completely annoying. And while it is fun to watch the “family” dynamic while they eat and when they bask in the sun, these are not enough to make up for the fact that I have to walk into their pen with a stick to keep them from jumping on me when I try to feed them.

In particular with the arrival of the new piglets we learned very quickly that they can escape the pen. I was not exactly feeling on top form that day and subsequently was not successful in capturing the pig back. Complicating matters Dukie, the resident dog, decided that all the commotion was a fun place to hang out. This also meant that when the piglet escaped Dukie went after him. Now if you were to put yourself in the position of a piglet, I would imagine that a giant dog chasing you would accelerate your movement. Thus, one pig was now gone.

With the other two tied up and squealing for their pig god, Pablo and another worker went to try to find the pig. We continued on with our work and just sort of hoped everything would work out. To my intense surprise, I went back to the pen later in the morning to find three piglets! Sara and I tried to capture the little one once again, but he was too fast. Away he ran and we were left unsuccessful a second time. Pablo returned empty handed (obviously) as well.

Straight after work, I headed to Finca Magdalena to meet up with a fellow Canadian I had met traveling. She also showed me the farm she had been staying at, Project Bona Fide, a permaculture farm with lots of volunteers. I enjoyed listening to her “I’m not cut out to be a farmer” rant and her rant about the people she was currently living with. While overall she said it was a positive experience, I could see in her eyes she was ready for something different. Which turned out to be the last two weeks of her trip through Costa Rica and Panama.

While I was enjoying a bit of a social life here, apparently that little pig returned twice and Pablo and crew were again unsuccessful. This little pig was definitely making us all look bad. In the end, Pablo spent most of the afternoon trying to get the pig pen secure enough with barbed wire that the other little pigs couldn’t get out. When Pablo left, I once again noticed the free piglet return to his brothers, but this time he couldn’t get in! Sara and I tried to help him out, but were unsuccessful once again. This time I opted to put in a little log through the barbed wire to help him get in.

Lo and behold, my plan worked! The piglet returned once again to reunite with his brothers and he made his way into the pen. I went back to the pen, cautiously, and took the log out. Thus, we finally caught our last little piglet. It only took an entire day...

The other issue we were having is that the big pigs we already had, didn’t exactly take warmly to these new additions. While not aggressive to the point of murder, I noticed the biggest pig biting at the snout of the piglet tied up to the middle tree in the pen. This piglet could probably move about one foot away from the tree, and thus was unable to run away or defend himself. This, more than anything, was perhaps the saddest thing to see. While I understand this is the nature of life and blah, blah, blah, it is not exactly the most comforting thing to see a tied up animal being harassed by a bully. On several occasions I found myself inside the pig pen brandishing a stick to shoo away the big pigs.

Overall, while I enjoy the new additions of frolicking little pigs the whole experience has been a bit of a disaster. To add insult to injury, the biggest pig here will be slaughtered this week. While I am not exactly excited at the prospect of seeing a pig die in real life (rather than the multiple documentaries I have watched on the subject of mechanized slaughter houses), I think it is still something I want to see. I set out on this trip to understand where food comes from. While for me I have made the personal choice to not consume animal products, at the same time I feel it is something I need to see for myself. At the end of the day, I feel I would regret not witnessing this and understanding what it takes to eat pork.