Dada: Pink porcine perfection
MANILA, Philippines - Fear filled her eyes and her pink skin strained against a sharp cage the first time I saw her, at a Beijing live-animal market. This little piglet was destined to become someone’s dinner, but instead, she became my friend. Dada, as she was named by my friend and Taiwan film star, Barbie Hsu, stayed with me for just a few days after People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Asia staffers rescued her, but during that short time, she made a big impression.
Dada played like a puppy, hopping in and out of boxes, wriggling under the bed and jumping up on the couch to snuggle and watch TV with me. She loved to have her tummy scratched, plopping herself on my lap and rolling onto her back. In return, Dada gave me “piglet kisses,” nuzzling her nose against my chin. Dada was quite the little diva. When I took her along to a vegetarian restaurant in Beijing, she sat on my lap and politely ate her meal from her own plate!
My piglet friend is now fully grown and lives at a beautiful sanctuary north of Beijing where she spends her days playing with other rescued animals, but I will never forget her or the lessons she taught me.
Squeal If You’re Smart
Dada changed everything that I thought I knew about pigs. For instance they like to eat slowly and savor their foods; they don’t sweat –– they bathe in water or mud to keep cool. When they aren’t confined to crates on filthy factory farms, pigs are fastidiously clean, keeping separate eating, sleeping and “restroom” areas.
People who have spent time studying these fascinating animals believe that pigs are smarter than the average three-year-old human child. If given the chance, pigs will learn through trial and error how to adjust the temperature in a barn to their liking and can learn to play video games by controlling a joystick with their snouts. Pigs have mighty memories: One researcher put a ball, a Frisbee and a dumbbell in front of several pigs and taught them to jump over, sit next to or fetch the objects. Three years later, the pigs remembered which object was which.
When they aren’t crammed en masse in factory-farm stalls, mother pigs and their young live in tightly knit groups, grooming and playing together; forming strong friendships; communicating constantly, using more than 20 distinct oinks, grunts and squeals and sleeping in communal nests.
Pigs like to help other species too: A pig named Priscilla saved a young boy from drowning; another pig, Spammy, led firefighters to a burning shed to save her calf friend, Spot; Lulu the pig squeezed through a doggie door and summoned help after her human companion collapsed from a heart attack and a pig named Mona even held a fleeing suspect’s leg until police arrived.
Tormented At The Table
If only humans were as benevolent. On factory farms, mother pigs are continuously impregnated and confined to cramped “gestation” crates, which are so small that the animals can’t even turn around in them. Workers snatch piglets from their distraught mothers when the animals are only a few weeks old and chop off their tails, break off the tips of their teeth with pliers and tear out males’ testicles –– all without any pain relief.
PETA US’s undercover investigations of major pig-flesh producers have documented that employees threw, beat and kicked pigs, slammed them against concrete floors, dragged injured pigs by their snouts and ears, bludgeoned them with metal rods and hammers and left them to slowly die.
After spending months packed snout-to-tail in crowded pens, pigs who aren’t much older than Dada was are sent to the slaughterhouse, where their throats are cut. Many are still alive and squealing when they are dumped into a tank of scalding-hot water.
