Piggytales Has Many Faces: From Barnyard to Boneyard in Fiction

Calling all fiction writers! Dive into the captivating world of pigs and discover how these extraordinary animals can add depth, drama, and intrigue to your stories. In this episode, "Piggytales," we explore the rich history and diverse roles of pigs, offering a treasure trove of inspiration.

Key Points:

* Origins and Natural Habitat: Unearth the fascinating backstory of pigs and their native environments to ground your characters in realism.

* Culinary Contributions: Delve into the historical and modern-day use of pigs for food—perfect for adding authenticity to your culinary scenes.

* Dangerous Encounters: Explore the perilous side of pigs, from their ability to eat people to their goring tusks—ideal for creating tension and conflict.

* Agricultural Uses: Learn how pigs have been utilized in agriculture, from sealing ponds to modern livestock practices—great for setting the stage in rural tales.

* Pigs as Pets: Discover the endearing qualities of pigs as pets and how they can enrich your characters’ lives.

* Medicine: Understand the traditional and modern medical uses of pigs—enhancing your plot with historical and scientific accuracy.

* Feral Pigs and Government Responses: Investigate the destructive impact of feral pigs in non-native regions and how governments respond—offering a backdrop for environmental and political intrigue.

* What Could Possibly Go Wrong: A whimsical look at how everything can go awry in your fictional tales involving pigs—because every good story needs a twist!

Whether you're crafting a historical epic, a modern thriller, or a whimsical fantasy, this episode will provide you with the inspiration and knowledge to bring your piggy tales to life.

Transcript

Need to work pigs into your story as more than just a dinner dish? Want to learn how they were used in history? Do you know the medical uses for them today? What do pigs have to do with plows and the mob? Learn about all of this and more in today’s episode. 

Welcome to Writing Rural with Alley, the fiction writer’s weekly inspiration station for rural life and lifestyles, from historical to post-apocalyptic, helping you bring your rural stories to life! I’m Alley, and this is episode #93, Piggytales (The Food, The Pet, The Body Disposal). Stick around to the end to find out all the ways things could possibly go wrong. Now, let’s get into this.

It’s Christmas week. Merry early Christmas to all of you! This week, I am taking a break from the snow theme to do a Christmas-themed episode. 

Here in the US, ham is a very common main dish for Christmas. Personally, I don’t mind ham at any time of year, but that’s just me. Pigs have been a staple in most of the world for centuries. My research says they originally had a habitat in Western Europe and the Mediterranean, through Eastern Europe, and into China, India, and Southeast Asia. They were domesticated between 8,000 and 10,000 years ago, depending on what source you look at. Domesticated pigs have since spread to almost every continent and are now part of the ecosystems. Wild pigs are often called wild boars, and many of them have tusks. 

For historical stories, pigs had a variety of purposes. Of course, there is the typical food and lard source. They were also used in hunting as bait for bigger predators, such as lions in Africa or jaguars in South America. Both of these have been hunted for pelts over the centuries. They are also hunted when they attack herds or even people. When they attack people, they are known as man-eaters or man-killers. 

I find this odd because growing up, one of the things we were warned about was the dangers of pig droves or drifts. That’s the fancy way of saying a group or family of pigs. The reason is that pigs are known to eat everything, including bones. My grandparents’ generation and before tell stories of farmers falling down in the pig pin and being eaten alive by them. Or having a heart attack and being eaten. The elderly going missing and the only sign is a slop bucket left in the pigpen. It’s also a fairly common story in my part of the world that mobsters would pay pig farmers to feed bodies to their pigs to get rid of the evidence. They simply needed to remove their teeth first since they tend not to eat the teeth. At least, that was what we were told. 

Now, there are many other uses for a pig. Trade in cultures for food or other livestock was common. The more diverse groups food sources were, the better chance of survival if anything happened to part of that. If hail killed the crops, they still had the meat. If a bird illness killed the birds, they had something else. You get the idea. 

Pigs have also been used for agricultural purposes. They will dig up almost any plant, given enough time. This has been used to clear waste and land for better foraging. Pigs have even been used to eliminate unwanted plants such as poison ivy or even hawthorns if they overpopulate an area. 

Their poop has been used as a fertilizer. Not only that, but they will eat leftover parts of animals, crops, or table scraps that would usually go to waste and turn that into fertilizer. Keep in mind that the smell of pig poop is based on what they eat, and this can get very smelly with table scraps. 

The one that sticks out most in my mind is that they were and frankly still are used to reseal a pond or make a pond. The rooting a pig does and their love of cooling off in mud makes a perfect pond sealant. I’ve seen them pinned in an area with a pond that was no longer retaining water for a summer. By the end of the summer, the pond was holding water perfectly again. 

Just don’t forget, while pigs enjoy mud, they need clean, dry places to sleep, especially to have babies. They can freeze in the mud if they get too cold. My pigs never enjoyed sleeping in the mud and always kept at least one corner of their pin not dug up, so it would not become muddy when it rained. 

Some tribes believed pigs to be a sign of fertility or good luck. Others used them or parts of them in ceremonies. Pigs were often used as a sacrifice or as the main course. Depending on which tribe it was. 

Others kept pigs as pets. Just as some people today keep them as pets, and yes, they are very smart animals. They can be nice, but they will not be nice to you if you are mean to them! They bite, headbutt, and if they have tusks, they can gore your characters. Gorings can be fatal. These can cut into main arteries, leaving them bleeding out quickly. They are also likely to become infected even if they are not injured badly because of the amount of mud, but mostly poop they root through each day. 

Rooting is what the digging they do with their nose is called. And yes, they dig with their nose. 

But as you likely know, pigs are most often used as a food source. These include but are not limited to, bacon (yum!), ham, pork chops, pork loin, tenderloins, sausage, spare ribs, baby back ribs, lard, pork shoulder, pork butt, salami, head cheese, lardons, and more. Even less traditional parts are eaten, such as the brains, tongue, snout, ears, lungs, liver, feet, skin, and stomach, and the blood is even used in things like blood sausage. Is anyone else hungry now? I sure am! 

Pigs have many vitamins and minerals. These include, but are not limited to:

* Vitamins A, B6, B12

* Riboflavin

* Iron

* Copper

* Zinc

* Phosphorus

* Selenium

* Potassium

* Calcium 

Many parts of a pig can and are used as dog feed or even treats. I know my dogs always love the ham bone! Just be careful your character does not give their dog the bone if it has been boiled to the point of softness. These can splinter and potentially kill a dog. Killing the dog is not recommended in most stories. 

Now, there are many other uses for pigs. I know people who used the organs as fish bait, especially for catfish. 

The bones have been used for many things too. This includes, but is not limited to; 

* Dog treats

* Boar hair hairbrush 

* Knives

* Handles for knives

* Needles for sewing

* Jewelry

* Carvings

* Wind instruments

* Ash- for pottery

* Made into glue

* Plows- Sometimes, large bones were used to plow fields

* Water filtration- Bone ash was used to filter water 

* Medical research

* To train hunting dogs

* Turned into leather

* Makes gelatin 

* Aerate soil 

For traditional medicine, there are some cultures that believe pig organs to have medicinal properties and are used in herbal remedies 

In modern times, they are still used for many things. This includes, but is not limited to: 

* Biomedical research

* The production of insulin (Not all insulin, but some) 

* Scientific studies

* Teaching animal care to children

* Entertainment in places such as a petting zoo

* Genetic research

* As therapy animals

* Biodegradable waste management

* Growing organs they hope to one day be able to transplant into humans

* Hormone extraction

* Heart valves can be used to replace human heart valves

* To make biodiesel fuel 

* Used in cosmetics 

* And so much more!!

One more thing before we go. Wild pigs, sometimes called feral swine, are considered destructive in many parts of the world. Some of the things they do include: 

Crop Damage: Wild pigs uproot and consume vast amounts of crops, including sugar cane, corn, wheat, oats, peanuts, rice, and fruits and vegetables. 

Livestock Predation: Pigs will prey on young livestock, such as calves and lambs, and can even kill adult livestock, especially while giving birth. 

Environmental Impact: Wild pigs damage forests by consuming seeds, nuts, and seedlings. They also do the same to pasture grasses and will contaminate or even eat livestock feed. 

Infrastructure Damage: They destroy fences, watering systems, irrigation, ditches, livestock troughs, and even levees. 

Disease Spreading: Wild pigs can carry and transmit diseases to livestock, pets, and humans.

There are ways people and government agencies are working together to combat this. 

Hunting: Hunting is used to reduce wild pig populations. Night vision is an interesting option for this. I don’t know of any other animal you are legally allowed to use night vision to hunt here in the US.

Trapping: Many types of traps, including cage and cable restraints, are used to capture wild hogs. However, trapping alone is often not enough to control large populations.

Electric Fencing: These help deter wild pigs from entering specific areas but are a pain in the backside to maintain over large areas. 

Aerial Shooting: In some places, at least here in America, allow and even encourage shooting from helicopters to control wild pig populations. This method can be effective but is also costly. 

Research and Development: New methods, such as male pig contraceptives, are being explored to control wild pig populations more effectively. Bluntly, that’s not going well, but I thought I would mention it. 

One quick reminder before we get to all the ways things could go wrong in your story. 

If you enjoy this content, I hope you will check out my Buy Me A Coffee page. I have many rural gems and stories that you will not find anywhere else—links in the description. 

Now, for everyone’s favorite part, what could possibly go wrong? 

Likely to go wrong: Your character pokes a domesticated pig with a stick, and the pig bites them. While pigs are sometimes kept as pets, they will bite like dogs do to protect themselves. 

Likely to go wrong: Your character is raising pigs and makes a little pig squeal by accident. The mother pig rushes them and attacks. Mother pigs are fiercely protective of their babies and have been known to go through barbed wire and break wooden walls to get to their babies when they think something is wrong. 

Likely to go wrong: Wild boars come onto your character’s homestead and seriously damage their farmland and garden. 

Possible to go wrong: Your character is walking in the forest and encounters a wild boar. The wild boar attacks them. Wild boars are known to be highly aggressive and territorial.

Possible to go wrong: Your character is an Orthodox religion that believes pigs to be dirty or unclean. They will have to be careful what medical insulin they take so as not to use something against their religion. 

Unlikely to go wrong: Your character uses pigs to reseal their pond. However, the pigs don’t root where they want, and another place is rooted, making a new pond. 

Unlikely to go wrong: Your character encounters a sick pig. Within days, they, too, are sick. Pigs are among the most likely animals to have animal-to-human virus mutations. 

Improbable but still technically in the realm of possibilities: Your character is hunting wild boars and encounters one up close. It has babies and attacks them to defend the babies, goring your character with a tusk. This could be deadly. 

Improbable but still technically in the realm of possibilities: Your character is gored by a wild boar, leaving permanent facial scars they will have to carry for the rest of their life. 

Thanks for listening! Until next time, happy wordsmithing.