The chilling discovery of the commandment, “All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others” in George Orwell’s fable, Animal Farm, warns of the dystopia to come. But the portrait of porcine dictatorship in Orwell’s satire is a pig in a poke in reality. More intelligent than cats or dogs, pigs are thought to be highly sentient creatures with cognitive abilities way beyond preconceptions of a domesticated farm animal. Pigs live in sociable groups, communicate through a range of snuffles, squeals and grunts, groom each other and cool their skins in mud. Respecters of hierarchies, they also make excellent mothers. To be born under the sign of the pig in Chinese Astrology defines a sensitive, generous and honourable individual. Still unfavourable pig comparisons persist….. no compliment is intended in piggy eyed, pig ignorant, greedy as a pig, living in a pigsty and referencing back to Orwell, recent history saw the word pig used as a term of abuse for the police.

Happily through all this bad press pigs, given space and time, can live a reasonably good life. Omnivorous by nature, they once fed on swill…  leftovers from dinner tables and the slops from beer.  In the wild they forage for nuts, roots, fungi, worms and small creatures.

On the Lamberton Estate above Eyemouth, pigs graze happily in meadows by the sea. Their upturned mouths give them an air of affability and contentment.

Not only are they a significant part of the Great British Breakfast but in xenotransplantation, pigs are currently thought to be the best animal for organ donation, close to humans through centuries of domestication. Such generosity should be rewarded with equal care and compassion and more positive spin for porkers. Altruistic as a pig, perhaps?.

 All animals are equal but perhaps pigs are more equal than others. They should have the last laugh.