Pigs, Video Games & Slaughter Houses

A glowing red and whitespinning wheel is projected on a theatre-sized screen. The game is on. Aninquisitive, sniffling pink nose taps lightly against it and… zoom! The wheeltwirls playfully, emitting a few green and white sparks. Another wheel appearselsewhere on the screen. This time, the nose presses against the wheel anddrags it to a triangle located in the middle of the screen. The wheel erupts ina magnificent display of colorful fireworks.

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Yet, this isn’t a video gameplayed by children. It is not humans who deliberately move spinning circles toa triangular target and shriek for joy at the magnificent, animated display offireworks. The creature that joyfully partakes in this video game won’tprogress to more advanced games and educational opportunities. No. The playerin this video game might one day find themselves on a dinner plate. 

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The pig, pig farming andvideo games aren’t common bedfellows. Yet, sensing the rising tide of animalwelfare concerns, some pig farmers are utilizing interactive virtual games toencourage and foster pigs’ curious, resourceful, and playful personas. In anidealized future free from crates, many pig farmers are taking the next step;they are designing barns filled with natural materials, toys, and sometimes yes,even video games.

Yet, sensing the rising tide of animal welfare concerns, some pig farmers are utilizing interactive virtual games to encourage and foster pigs’ curious, resourceful, and playful personas.

Babe, Napoleon, Wilbur - allstrong willed, intelligent, sentient and emotional characters in some of themost beloved and acclaimed literary prose. The fact that these characters areembodied as pigs is no coincidence. Their intelligence has long been recognizedby authors and now scientific evidence of their mental and emotionalcapabilities is growing. Pigs can telleach other apart, engaging in vicious battles withtheir foe and comforting their friends; they can use a mirror to huntout food concealed behind a barrier and they can quickly learn where foodis hidden and then use that knowledge to cunninglydeceive other pigs. Pigs have been classed as curious, confident, agitated and playful.

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Demonstrating that pigs playhas been a powerful discovery.Play, from a scientific perspective, can encompass exploration, being rough andtumbling, leaping or scampering. Though the actions are enjoyable inthemselves, play also has manyuseful functions for a pig. Play can be theclassroom that teaches young piglets to forage, the outlet for frustration, thedance that lures an attractive partner and the glue that binds young siblingstogether. Play is also requires a certain level of mental acuity. It meanshaving the ability to read sometimes subtle cues, the arch of a back, the lookin an eye, which separate play behavior from aggression or threat. Play meansthat it’s near impossible, for even just one moment, to feel hurt, boredom,stress or anger and that makes play is the markerflag of a good life and of good welfare.

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According to leading animalwelfare scientists, giving animals asense of agency increasesquality of life. Choice encourages curiosity, forward planning, and takesindividual preferences into account. Agency takes many forms. Thesimple act of giving pigs straw can turn a barren barn into an adventureplayground. Straw nourishesa pig’s desire to dig, seek, construct and destroy and, as the sun fades, apigs’ playground becomes its sanctuary as exhausted bodies can nuzzle into thehay.

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Other farmers are taking thenext step through offering pigs toys.Some barns dangle a rainbow of toys from their ceilings and pen walls, rangingfrom yellow balls, tough black tires and bright plastic pipes to shiny chains or anintricately braided rope. Noveltyis the key. As any parent knows, even the child who is supremelyexcited about their latest toy will grow bored of it after too long. Yet, atruth also universally acknowledged by parents, novelty is also the challenge.Giving the pigs the variety they crave to fulfill their curiosity takes acertain sense of creativity and dedication; choosing an object they’ll liketakes trial and error; and making it practical means recognizing that a barnwith many pigs can get quite messy.

While the video game is just a concept at this stage, it is already making human game-testers question their relationship with pigs and how we house them.

However, the most futuristicof the toys is the video game mentioned in the introduction: Pig Chase. The videogame for pigs and people, designed by a team at the Utrecht School of the Artsand Wageningen University in the Netherlands, is perhaps the most ambitiousattempt to recognize and reward pigs’ brain power. On the one end you have ahuman player with a tablet device and on the other you have a pig opponentplaying on a projector screen in their barn. The goal is for both of you tojointly steer coloured balls of light towards triangular targets that pop up.Achieve that and a firework display erupts on the barn screen, delighting thepigs and resulting in a high score for the human player. While the game is justa concept at this stage, it is already making human game-testers question theirrelationship with pigs and how we house them.

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One of the most interestingreactions to the game was parental in nature; “These pigs should be outside,not glued to a screen inside” lamented one of the game’s human participants.This poses an interesting prospect: Could the best way to encourage play be tosimply put the pigs in charge of their own outdoor space? Instead ofrefurbishing a prison cell, should we just let the prisoners out instead?Instead of bringing the straw inside, let them uproot grass outside; instead ofproviding a plastic tube to push around, give them a log; instead of havingthem roll around on the bare concrete, give them a mud puddle. Answering thatquestion is no easy feat. It means addressing the financial, consumereconomics, climate, environmental, practical, and ethical factors that broughtus to housing hundreds of pigs indoors in the first place.

“These pigs should be outside, not glued to a screen inside” lamented one of the game’s human participants.

Yet, in addition to pushingthe envelope when it comes to housing and entertaining pigs, giving pig’s toysand watching their intellect manifest itself, also forces us to confront anuncomfortable truth: people are not so different from animals.

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Finding ways of putting playinto pig barns is indicative of wider trends in animal welfare science, awayfrom simply attempting to reduce negative emotions and towards promotingpositive ones instead. While making animal’s environment changeable and challengingis straightforward, if those caring for pigs while they are animals and notmeat make a concerted effort to do so, it begs a not-so-straightforwardconundrum. The further down the animal wellness path we walk, the more we, asconsumers, must recognize the cognitive dissidence that forms the foundation ofour shaky logic.

The further down the animal wellness path we walk, the more we, as consumers, must recognize the cognitive dissidence that forms the foundation of our shaky logic.

Some consumers have taken to vegetarianism or veganism toresolve their moral qualms. While good in easing the pressure to cram more pigsinto a single barn, trying to create a world where farming does not exist atall is both unrealistic. Instead, we need to be actively seeking out productsin the supermarket produced in ways that promote positive lives for theanimals. We need to put pressure on governing bodies, like the Canada PorkCouncil, to provide scientists with money to research new and out-of-the-boxsolutions and not just find new ways to make pigs fatter. We need to let go of gold standards,they will only dissociate us further from the farmer and the animal, and pushfor small, incremental changes in how we care for the sentient beings thatbecome our bacon.