{"id":115,"date":"2008-03-08T07:44:16","date_gmt":"2008-03-08T14:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/?p=115"},"modified":"2010-03-16T12:38:25","modified_gmt":"2010-03-16T19:38:25","slug":"if-pigs-could-fly%e2%80%a6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/if-pigs-could-fly%e2%80%a6\/","title":{"rendered":"If pigs could fly&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>By Guest Blogger Annie Eagle<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt; font-family: VNI-Times\"><v:shapetype coordsize=\"21600,21600\" o:spt=\"75\" o:preferrelative=\"t\" filled=\"f\" stroked=\"f\" path=\"m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe\" id=\"_x0000_t75\"><font face=\"Times New Roman\"><em>\u00a0If pigs could fly&#8230;<br \/>\n<\/em>(after the year of the pig)<br \/>\n<em><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/flyingpig.jpg\" alt=\"If pigs could fly\u2026\" \/><\/em><\/font><\/v:shapetype><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 117.0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\">In <st1:place w:st=\"on\"><st1:country-region w:st=\"on\">Vietnam<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place> there is a delicately sweet, street-speciality called \u2018jambong\u2019 (from the French for ham).<\/span><\/strong><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><span>\u00a0 <\/span>It is often served with sticky rice (xoi) or is deftly stuffed into cut baguettes alongside cheese or meat and slivers of cucumber. <span>\u00a0<\/span>I had eaten it myself a couple of times before I discovered what it was. <span>\u00a0<\/span>It looks to me like mattress stuffing, or very fine wood shavings.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>What I find striking, is how the once living animal, the pig, could be rendered unrecognizable, just as great trees are reduced to sawdust\u2026\u2026 <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 117.0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 117.0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><\/span><\/font><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><font face=\"Tahoma\">Now that the <strong>Year of the Pig<\/strong> has just ended, I wish to consider the reputation and treatment of this lowly and most serviceable animal.<br \/>\n<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 117.0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><\/span><font face=\"Tahoma\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\">In the Orient, the Pig has an honoured place in the Chinese Calendar.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>This Year of the Pig ended a 60 year cycle, so was known as the <strong>Year of the Golden Pig<\/strong>.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>It was seen as an especially auspicious year.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>Orientals believe that those who are born in a Pig year will have a good life, <span>\u00a0<\/span>as reflected in the Vietnamese proverb \u2018Tuoi Hoi nam doi ma an\u2019 <span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><o:p><font face=\"Tahoma\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'\"><font face=\"Tahoma\">which roughly translated means \u2018If you are born in the Year of the Pig, just lie down and wait, and someone will bring you food\u2019 !<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><font face=\"Tahoma\">People born in the Year of the Pig are said to have the attributes of honesty, patience, generosity, courage &amp; even nobility, and, an admirable belief in the perfectibility of mankind(!) <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\" lang=\"EN\"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><br \/>\nIn one of the many variations of the Animal Zodiac story, each of the 12 animals was called before its peers and had to explain why it deserved a position at the top. The <strong>Boar<\/strong>, at a loss, proceeded to claim that <strong>the meat on its bones &#8220;tasted good<\/strong>&#8220;. This explanation was apparently considered unsatisfactory, because the Boar was placed at the very end of the Zodiac.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\" lang=\"EN\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\" lang=\"EN\"><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><br \/>\nAlthough Moslems and Jews regard pigs as \u2018unclean\u2019, pork has become the meat of preference for the Oriental palate, principally in <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\">Thailand<\/st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\">China<\/st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\">Taiwan<\/st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\">Japan<\/st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\">Korea<\/st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Vietnam<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>. <span>\u00a0<\/span>So much so, that pork has to be imported from the <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\">USA<\/st1:country-region> &amp; <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Canada<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>. <span>\u00a0<\/span>One estimate is that <strong><em>1000 pigs an hour<\/em><\/strong> are slaughtered in the <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">US<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> alone. <em>I\u2019ll let you do the arithmetic<span style=\"color: maroon\">.<\/span><\/em> <span>\u00a0<\/span>An interesting linguistic point here: <span>\u00a0<\/span>English is one of the few languages where the words for meat, are divorced from the animal it came from, &#8211; a relic from the feudal system installed by the Normans, who invaded England in 1066 (the meat \u2018pork\u2019 from the French word for pig \u2018porcs\u2019, whereas the animal retains the Anglo-Saxon names \u2018pig\u2019 and \u2018swine\u2019.)<span>\u00a0 <\/span><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><span><\/span><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><span><\/span><\/font><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\">As a European residing in <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Viet Nam<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>, I have given much thought to the plight of pigs, not least, because one aspect of it was right under my nose, on a daily basis.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>For my first two months in <st1:place w:st=\"on\"><st1:placename w:st=\"on\">Da Nang<\/st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st=\"on\">City<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place>, I lived with a Vietnamese family.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>The balcony of my room on the fourth floor overlooked the busy Han Street Market, with a marvellous view of the adjacent <st1:place w:st=\"on\">Han River<\/st1:place>, suspension bridge &amp; the mountains beyond.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>However the deep pleasure of this was marred by something I saw &amp; heard directly across the street below me.<\/p>\n<p><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><font face=\"Tahoma\">My daily wake-up call around 4am, in the grey light of dawn, was the sound of a man hacking up freshly-slaughtered pig carcasses with a cleaver.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>Every morning he would roll up with three of them slung across the back seat of his motorbike, cloven in half from snout to tail, trotters jiggling obscenely in the half-light.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>All skinned &amp; pink, looking vaguely human, The man threw them down on a tarp on the ground, &amp; proceeded to butcher them. <span>\u00a0<\/span>A grisly sight. By 5am they were all skillfully &amp; systematically reduced to \u2018cuts\u2019 of meat, around which a small crowd of shoppers would gather;<span>\u00a0 <\/span>by 7 or 8am the whole lot had been sold, the tarp was empty &amp; the man packed up &amp; left. <span>\u00a0<\/span>This would repeat itself again the next day, &amp; the next\u2026..<o:p><\/o:p><\/font><\/span> <font face=\"Tahoma\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><br \/>\nEvery morning three pigs, three pigs, three pigs\u2026.. I often thought of that other very English expression \u2018 <strong>If pigs could fly<em>\u2026\u2026.. <\/em><\/strong>with the extension <em><span>\u00a0<\/span><strong>\u2018they probably <\/strong><\/em><\/span><strong><em><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\">would!\u2019<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/font><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><br \/>\nNo matter how many times I heard the chopping, my horror of it never quite dissipated.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>Even if I did not see it, there was an inevitable visual association, with the accompanying thought of the animals\u2019 death.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>A constant reminder to me of the Buddhist Wheel of Life &amp; Death &amp; the daily suffering of animals, at human hands. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in -9pt 0pt 0in\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in -9pt 0pt 0in\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><font face=\"Tahoma\">This became more poignant for me, just before Tet, which I spent in a village, in a very rural part of northern <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Vietnam<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>There, I heard the prolonged screams of three or four pigs, meeting their demise.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>I have never heard a more distressing, more piercing sound.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>It conveyed everything of their fear and pain, their will to live, &amp; their \u2018betrayal,\u2019 all at once.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in -9pt 0pt 0in\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in -9pt 0pt 0in\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><font face=\"Tahoma\">However, the killing &amp; eating of pigs, along with many other animals, is simply a matter of fact here in <st1:place w:st=\"on\">Asia<\/st1:place>.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>It is far more visible than in the west, where saran-wrapped cuts of meat in the supermarket fridge are far removed from the slaughterhouse experience.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>Generally, the conditions in which the animals are reared differ little from the west.<span>\u00a0 <\/span><span>\u00a0<\/span>Inhumane farming methods and overcrowding are certainly a factor in the recurrent outbreaks of foot &amp; mouth disease in the <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\">UK<\/st1:country-region> and the recent epidemic of <span style=\"color: blue\">\u2018blue-eared pig\u2019<\/span> <span style=\"color: blue\">disease<\/span> in <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\">China<\/st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Vietnam<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>, most poignantly in the <strong>Year of the Pig<\/strong>.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in -9pt 0pt 0in\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in -9pt 0pt 0in\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><\/span><font face=\"Tahoma\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><br \/>\nPigs still run wild in the forests of <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Vietnam<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>; they are powerful, solitary, clever animals.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>Very different to <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'\">w<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\">hat the domesticated version has become.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in -9pt 0pt 0in\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in -9pt 0pt 0in\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><\/span><\/font><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><br \/>\nThis animal was once revered, even held sacred in Celtic and other traditions, as the <strong>White Sow,<\/strong> an incarnation of the <strong>Great White Goddess<\/strong>.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>Nowadays, pigs are much maligned in the western world. They are considered dirty animals.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>English idiom reflects our disdain, in expressions such as : pig-headed, pig-ignorant, sweating like a pig, fat as a pig, to make a pig of oneself, to hog one\u2019s<span>\u00a0 <\/span>food, to be a road hog\u2026<span>\u00a0 <\/span>In fact pigs are not dirty, and neither do they sweat; they roll in the mud in order to keep cool.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>And they are also very intelligent \u2013reputedly more intelligent than dogs.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>Moreover, genetically they are very close to humans, which is why pig organs are used in human replacement surgery.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>And here\u2019s some more \u2018food for thought\u2019 \u2013 the Papua New Guinea word for &#8220;<strong>human<\/strong>&#8221; translates literally as &#8220;<strong>long pig<\/strong>&#8220;\u2013 we apparently taste very much like pig meat.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>So, give a thought to how similar we are, and thank your lucky stars that, in this life, you weren\u2019t born a pig!<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in -9pt 0pt 0in\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in -9pt 0pt 0in\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><\/span><font face=\"Tahoma\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\">Postscript<\/span><\/strong><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\">: From a Buddhist perspective, I appeal to you to <em>ruminate<\/em> on the idea of giving up meat\u2026.. or at the very least, if you <em>must <\/em>eat it, try to reduce your consumption and seek out organically farmed, \u2018free-range\u2019 meat, from animals that have lived a happy life. <span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Then, if you do \u2018bring home the bacon\u2019 you can be assured that it has not had to suffer, in order to please your palate.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>Perhaps you will find it in your heart to bring compassion into your diet, and over time, come to recognize the wisdom in this.\u00a0<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in -9pt 0pt 0in\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"Tahoma\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><\/span><\/font><span style=\"font-size: 11pt\"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><br \/>\nMay these words not fall like pearls before swine!<o:p><\/o:p><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Guest Blogger Annie Eagle \u00a0If pigs could fly&#8230; (after the year of the pig) In Vietnam there is a delicately sweet, street-speciality called \u2018jambong\u2019 (from the French for ham).\u00a0 It is often served with sticky rice (xoi) or is deftly stuffed into cut baguettes alongside cheese or meat and slivers of cucumber. \u00a0I had eaten it myself a couple of times before I discovered what it was. \u00a0It looks to me like mattress stuffing, or very fine wood shavings.\u00a0 What I find striking, is how the once living animal, the pig, could be rendered unrecognizable, just as great trees are reduced to sawdust\u2026\u2026 Now that the Year of the Pig has just ended, I wish to consider the reputation and treatment of this lowly and most serviceable animal. In the Orient, the Pig has an honoured place in the Chinese Calendar.\u00a0 This Year of the Pig ended a 60 year cycle, so was known as the Year of the Golden Pig.\u00a0 It was seen as an especially auspicious year.\u00a0 Orientals believe that those who are born in a Pig year will have a good life, \u00a0as reflected in the Vietnamese proverb \u2018Tuoi Hoi nam doi ma an\u2019 which roughly [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4277,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animal-rights","category-events","category-general"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>If pigs could fly... - HappyCow<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/if-pigs-could-fly\u2026\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"If pigs could fly... - HappyCow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Guest Blogger Annie Eagle \u00a0If pigs could fly&#8230; (after the year of the pig) In Vietnam there is a delicately sweet, street-speciality called \u2018jambong\u2019 (from the French for ham).\u00a0 It is often served with sticky rice (xoi) or is deftly stuffed into cut baguettes alongside cheese or meat and slivers of cucumber. \u00a0I had eaten it myself a couple of times before I discovered what it was. \u00a0It looks to me like mattress stuffing, or very fine wood shavings.\u00a0 What I find striking, is how the once living animal, the pig, could be rendered unrecognizable, just as great trees are reduced to sawdust\u2026\u2026 Now that the Year of the Pig has just ended, I wish to consider the reputation and treatment of this lowly and most serviceable animal. In the Orient, the Pig has an honoured place in the Chinese Calendar.\u00a0 This Year of the Pig ended a 60 year cycle, so was known as the Year of the Golden Pig.\u00a0 It was seen as an especially auspicious year.\u00a0 Orientals believe that those who are born in a Pig year will have a good life, \u00a0as reflected in the Vietnamese proverb \u2018Tuoi Hoi nam doi ma an\u2019 which roughly [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/if-pigs-could-fly\u2026\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"HappyCow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HappyCow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-03-08T14:44:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2010-03-16T19:38:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/flyingpig.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"eric\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@happycow\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@happycow\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"eric\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/if-pigs-could-fly%e2%80%a6\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/if-pigs-could-fly%e2%80%a6\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"eric\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e7b2571af50a2be9655fff18fe465618\"},\"headline\":\"If pigs could fly&#8230;\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-03-08T14:44:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-03-16T19:38:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/if-pigs-could-fly%e2%80%a6\/\"},\"wordCount\":1238,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/if-pigs-could-fly%e2%80%a6\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/flyingpig.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Animal Rights\",\"Events\",\"General\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/if-pigs-could-fly%e2%80%a6\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/if-pigs-could-fly%e2%80%a6\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/if-pigs-could-fly%e2%80%a6\/\",\"name\":\"If pigs could fly... - 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