10 things about... pigs
You can also see: 10 things about...ice cream, easter eggs, pigs, turkeys, beavers, nettles, marshmallows, pumpkins.
At least 10 things you might not know (and maybe one or two made-up “facts”)
- Pigs have more taste buds than any other mammal (including humans!).
- Pigs are omnivores and will naturally eat plants (including bulbs, fruits, roots and fungi), small animals (such as rodents, insects, snails, worms and any carrion)
and just about anything else but will most probably draw the line at pickled onion-flavour Monster Munch.
- Pigs have more teeth (44) than humans (adults 32, children 20). On average a pig eats 2.2kg of food and can drink up to 60 litres of water each day. It takes about 4kg of feed to produce 1kg of meat from a pig. How wasteful is that!
- Approximately 1.4 billion pigs are slaughtered worldwide for their meat each year.
- Whilst British pigs are supposedly treated better than many of their European cousins, the Advertising Standards Authority does not believe it is suitable to claim that they have “very high welfare standards!”
- Pigs have no functioning sweat glands and do not sweat. So next time someone tells you that they are “sweating like a pig” you might want to politely suggest that they choose a more appropriate metaphor. How about “sweating like an overweight darts player”?
- Pigs can get sunburn and do not enjoy intense warm weather. They wallow in mud to cool down and often use this mud as a sunscreen… why not impress family and friends by trying it yourself this summer?
Pigs are sometimes credited with being the 4th most intelligent non-human animal. Chimpanzees come first in most tests, followed by dolphins, elephants, pigs and Jeremy Clarkson.
- Pigs are very good swimmers and strong runners. On foot they can manage up to 30 miles per hour. If only they were able to ride bikes they could start entering triathlons.
- Babe, the talking pig, was played by actor Andy Serkis who has also starred as King Kong and Gollum, in Lord of the Rings.
For more information, read our pig factsheet.
Did you spot the 'untruths'? Let us know which fact you think is false.
Think you can come up with something better?! Get creative and make up one of your own to replace it.
We'll give everyone who enters a "Love Us, Not Eat Us" animal window sticker and put the best online. Write to education@vegsoc.org (don't forget to include your name and address if you would like a window sticker!)
You can also see: 10 things about...ice cream, easter eggs, pigs, turkeys, beavers, nettles, marshmallows, pumpkins.