This is a photo of our pig
Sarah and I decided to get a pig. The idea is to buy it now (August) at around 60kg and slaughter it at around 120kg in December. We will keep it in the neighbour’s sty with another pig belonging to the neighbour and split the costs. The first step is to go to a pig farm to buy a pig.
You don’t need precise instructions to get to the pig farm because you can smell it from about 2km away. On arrival at the farm we had to wait a while to be attended because they were loading a lorry which was on the way to a slaughter house. Pigs eye’s are similar to human eyes and they look as if they know that they are going to their death. I asked myself if I should become a vegetarian? Later we go to the pens to choose a pig. The pigs are kept in crowded pens, there is no straw, the excrement goes through holes in the floor. The accommodation for the pigs is not very pleasant but it is within the law and must be quite typical of how pigs are looked after on commercial farms. I realise that by buying a pig and looking after it ourselves we can at least make sure that 2 pigs have a more pleasant life than they would have had if they had stayed where they were.
The only pig who has good accommodation on the farm is the father of all the pigs. He weighs 400kg and has testicles the size of melons.
Pigs at the pig farm
The pigs were a bit dazed and confused when they arrived at the cortijo but they managed to walk to the sty with no problem. Sarah chose the one with the spots.
Pigs walking to the sty
This is the pigs a couple of days after arrival. Here they are tucking into apple cores and small potatoes which supplements their diet of proprietary pig food. Pigs seem to enjoy
eating, at least they are going to be enjoying themselves between now and December.
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- Pigs eating apple cores
Looks like a great addition to the farm! I wish I could return in the winter and feast on the pig with you guys. Hope everything is going well.
-Zoe
How can you eat an animal that you raised? Does it feel like eating a pet?
We have not eaten then yet so I don’t know. I know that the pigs live in a pleasant place and are better treated than commercial pigs so theoretically it should be no problem. If I can’t cope with killing then them maybe I should be a vegetarian.
Guess it’s the end of December now, so time for an update. How does it all go now? I presume you keep some of the meat and sell the rest on. Good for you, at least these two were treated as farm animals should be.
Winston Churchill was a famous pig lover. According to him, he liked them because “cats look down on you, dogs look up to you, but pigs treat you as an equal”.