Cognitive Ability

• Have long-term memory and can distinguish different objects
• Can play fetch and complete tasks when requested
• Have a sense of time: in one study, pigs needed to press a lever for a certain amount of seconds to receive a food reward.  The pigs realized the task would be easier if they used their snouts
• Can anticipate future events, both positive and negative
• Pigs have a vocabulary of over 20 distinct oinks, grunts, snorts, snarls and squeaks that have specific meanings.
• Have excellent memory when foraging for food.  Can remember areas that previously had food, and avoided areas that did not
• Can understand numerical values: in a foraging study, the pigs remembered where there were larger amounts of food and smaller amounts, and preferred the areas with the larger amount
• Can differentiate between familiar people/animals and strangers, and can tell close relatives apart
• They are self aware, which was studied by using a mirror.  The pigs not only understood that they were looking at their reflection, but they also were able to find food only using the mirror, to show its location in relation to where the pig was located in the mirror
• ​Another study showed that pigs know their actions cause change.  This was studied by having pigs control a joystick at a computer to hit a target.
• A lactating mother sow has a special call to let her piglets know it’s time to suckle

Emotional Aptitude

• Sensitive
• Can connect with other pigs and feel their emotions, anticipating when something good or bad is about to happen
• Pigs can show their emotions; for example, they get more playful when anticipating a positive event
• ​The show complex personality traits including aggression, sociability, and exploration
• Pigs will show distress when they see another animal or human suffering
• ​When we flip pigs to do hoof or tusk trims, the pig will typically squeal in fear and every pig at the Sanctuary will attempt to come to their aid

Relationships

• They show affection to humans and other animals they like, and will show when they dislike someone
• Pigs need to be with other pigs and are known for being a "herd" animal
• Pigs should live with other pigs, since they can provide enrichment, mental and physical stimulation, and companionship that other animals can’t provide.
• They great each other by rubbing noses

Fun Facts

• Love to play: with toys, balls, straw, play fight or ‘wrestle’ with other pigs, love to run around and flop on the ground
• Play improves pigs’ cognitive and social abilities.  Pigs who who lived in an environment that encouraged play helped them develop more than pigs who were confined in crates
  

Pigs Raised For Food

• 97% of pigs are raised in factory farms where they live in complete confinement
• The sows are forcibly impregnated and confined to a gestation crate
• When in a gestation crate a pig can only stand up and lie down; they can't even turn around
• When they are ready to have babies they are then confined to a farrowing crate where they are pinned down on their side
• Piglets are removed from their mother at 2 to 3 weeks of age and then the sow is placed back in the gestation crate for the cycle to continue
• The piglets are then placed in "weaner pens"
• At 12 weeks piglets are then moved to "grower pens"
• Then they spend the last few weeks of their life in "finisher pens" and slaughtered at just 6 months of age
• Piglets are castrated, have their tails cut off and teeth clipped all without anaesthetic