Pigs

We talked about pigs in class today.

Or rather how to make them do what you want them to. The best way to make a 100kg animal walk in the right direction.

The teacher suggested pushing them with something that looked like the shields policemen use at riots. He pointed out that it shouldn’t have any holes in it since the pig would just put his snout through it and throw the shield aside.

But I had a distinct memory from my childhood when my dad came home after chasing a pig. He, my grandfather and Gunder had not been able to get the animal anywhere until they managed to get a bucket over its head.

So my question was naturally: Why don’t you just place a bucket over their heads?

But obviously something was wrong with my memory since all the three pig experts in the room dissed my idea.

Maybe Gunder just used the bucket to keep it from biting him…

But I remember how my dad told us the pig think it’s nighttime whenever it is in the dark. But as I said, I must have been wrong.

****

Later I had a very interesting discussion with the Polish guy that works with us.

During his PhD studies he had to take the umbilical cord from hundreds of pigs. At the same farm where he did this was a girl who got terrible eczema. She had been to the doctors and got a lot of different ointments but nothing seemed to make the rash go away. Then she started handling the piglets, taking care of the mother when it was giving birth.

Some people like to use gloves while doing this, but she was a hardcore farmer and handled everything with her bare hands. Among the things that come out of a pig when it gives birth is the placenta. And what she noticed was that after some time her eczema went away.

The point being: There is a point in using all those expensive cosmetics containing placenta. OR you could just go to a farm and ask if you could assist when the pigs are giving birth.

And no, my grandfather never let me do this, I have patted a small piglet though – they are sooo cute, and scream like… well like pigs!