Wilma: I am a pig, a round and hairy ginger pig. They call us KuneKunes, those Feeders who deliver grain, who open up the gate for grazing. Why are KuneKunes in Montana, where the wind blows all the time? Why are KuneKunes at the Gravel Patch, where the dirt is thin and rocks are everywhere? We are here because we came with humans, because pigs and humans work together. We are here because pigs feed humans, and because humans feed pigs. Humans and pigs have lived together for

Wilma: I am Wilma, that is Mona. I am loud, Mona is quiet. I am small, Mona is large. I am gleaming gold and lustrous ginger, Mona is plain black and white. I have opinions, Mona gets along. We are pigs, we eat a lot, And we cuddle in the straw. Mona: Opinions I have. Silent thoughts are still thinking. Same and different.

Wilma: Five pigs are at the Patch, except when there are lots of piglets running ‘round. The Feeders at the Patch take care of us, and the pigs at the Patch take care of the Feeders. There are fences at the Patch, and the Feeders think they make the rules. But pigs know what we want. When our food is slow, we bellow at the Feeders and hustle them along. When we are separated from each other, we break through fences and make a big pig pile. The Feeders’ rules and the Feeders’

Wilma: The Great Past Pigs decreed that pigs should help humans by giving them good food. Now there are pigs on nearly the whole planet, one domesticated pig for every seven people. From sausage to bulgogi, bacon to barbeque, pork chops to prosciutto, Pigs give humans food and flavor. Here in Montana there are lots and lots of cows. Cows make mostly burger. Boring. People eat more pigs than any other animal in the world. Mona: Eat pigs ev’rywhere. Pigs give fat and tasty me

Wilma: When pigs began helping humans, humans were grateful. People saw that pigs were smart and happy. Pigs knew how to find food and take care of their young and stay healthy. Pigs did not poop in their drinking water like humans did. But over thousands of years (and especially in the last century), people began to ignore pigs’ feelings. They called pigs pork and made them live all together, without any space to move. Pigs couldn’t follow the Great Pig Way, and they got sad

Wilma: Pigs are silly, pigs are hungry. Pigs love to eat, pigs love to scratch. Pigs know how to enjoy life – pigs take naps in the sunshine, pigs snuffle in the dirt. Pigs make friends with people, pigs make friends with cats. Pigs tolerate chickens. Pigs are more than pork. Pigs are pigs. Mona: Pigs are good to eat. Pork comes from sad, sickly hogs. Eat pigs. Don’t eat pork.

Wilma: Look around at the Patch, and you’ll see pigs. There is a pig snuffling, there is a pig scratching. There are pigs eating, there are pigs napping. The pigs chat with each other, the pigs chat with the geese. The pigs grunt at the Feeders, the pigs hang out with the Feeders. Pigs live at the Patch, and eventually pigs get butchered at the Patch. Pigs are there for it all. Mona: Pigs at the center Of all living and dying Together is what matters.

Wilma: The Babirusa, the Warthog, the Wild Boar, the Peccary. All pigs. The Duroc, the Berkshire, the Tamworth, the Landrace. Pigs, too. In Asia, pigs are there. In Africa, pigs are there. In South America and in North America, pigs are there. In Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, pigs are there. In Antarctica, there are no pigs. Yet. Mona: Everywhere. Pigs. Pigs are smart, pigs have culture. Pigs adapt. Watch out.

Wilma: Long ago, humans honored the Great Pig Way. They sang songs in praise of pigs, they danced for pigs. Ancient humans knew that their survival depended on the pig. People threw parties to celebrate the pig. One of the oldest rock paintings in the world is a pig. Of course! Pigs are beautiful. Mona: Beauty in the eye The beholder, a pig, sees Worth, perfection, pig-ness.

Wilma: Long, long ago in the Holocene, the Great Past Pigs made friends with humans. Pigs saw that humans are not always kind, that humans often fight each other, that humans do some stupid things. Pigs are friendly, smart, and fat. Pigs know to poop far away from where we eat. Pigs love food and naps, and get along with everyone. The Great Past Pigs saw that they could help the sad and bitter people. They went to live with humans to teach them, to guide them in the Great Pig

Wilma: The Great Past Pigs didn’t talk about “me” or “I” or “self.” The Great Past Pigs said that pig-ness is what matters, that pigs aren’t separate or alone. Pigs showed humans that the world is full of food – we munched and smacked. Some of the Great Past Pigs became good food for humans, rich and tasty. Pigs showed people that the world is full of comfort – pigs take naps, we sigh and snore. Yet people wanted more – more pork, but not more naps. Mona: Cheese, apples, su

Wilma: Pigs lived near to humans for many, many years. Pigs cleaned up the mess of people, and snuffled through their waste. When did pigs feed people? When did people feed pigs? In western Asia, pigs and people first lived together at least as long ago as 8500 BCE. Pigs still came and went. We helped the people, just not all the time. Mona: Domestication. Humans not the center. No. Many pig choices.

Pig hooves (these are Mona's) are remarkably versatile, allowing pigs to travel comfortably through all kinds of terrain. Wilma: Early humans traveled all around, and pigs sometimes travelled with them. When travelling with people, pigs met other pigs and other people. Different kinds of pigs would breed and mix. Some would stay, and some would travel. So pigs and humans roamed together and apart. Pigs changed humans, and humans changed pigs. Now the globe has many kinds of p

Wilma: Traveling with people meant that pigs spread out everywhere. But some pigs liked less travel. Some people liked less travel, too, so those pigs and those people came to live together. They stayed more in one place, and people put up fences. By 7000 BCE, some pigs left the grasslands and the forests and the swamps to live inside the fences. They still left the fences to eat sometimes, but more and more they stayed with people. Mona: Some pigs with people. Diff’rent pe

Wilma: Mona and I, we are KuneKunes, the mystery pig. KuneKunes are from New Zealand, but how did KuneKunes first get there? Did Kunes come from Polynesia in canoes? Maybe. Did Kunes escape from whaling boats? Maybe. Only a few other kinds of pigs have neck wattles like the KuneKune. The Maori people gave Kunes as gifts, signs of generosity and plenty. Pigs are special, and Kunes even more so. Mona: Kunes have a past. No one really truly knows. Gifts in many ways.

Wilma: Pigs were often presents between people, The best gift to give and get – A friend to keep you warm in winter, Years of healthy piglets running ‘round, A way to use up scraps and bits, to store nutrition on the hoof. So of course you’d live to make pigs happy, you’d shape your ways around their needs. People weren’t just people – they were people who lived and worked with pigs. Mona: Pigs make time to nap. Pigs make napping possible. Time. A gift from pigs.

Wilma: There are many things that humans toss away… Bits of food, rinds and shavings, peels and bones. Those aren’t waste to pigs, but rather snuffle. Pigs are good at making do, at finding use in everything. Rotten fruit and moldly vegetables? Intestines and spare parts from hunting? Pigs can take what humans do not want, and make it into fat and meat and flavor. And our waste? Use it to grow more things, that humans eat and toss away… Mona: In the pig cycle All has use, a

Wilma: Without pigs, what would people be? Cold. Hungry. Pigs gave people heat and food and piglets. With pigs came feasting and great celebrations. Pigs became a party, a reason to dance and sing. Pigs became a sign of plenty, a store of good things, freely given. Mona: Pigs. More is better. Parties. More is better, too. Pigs. Parties. Get some.

Wilma: When humans came across the land bridge, or used boats and settled on the coast, It is possible that pigs from Asia came along. It makes sense that pigs would travel with people all around, Walking lots of miles, snuffling to and fro, Even napping in a small boat, snoring on the ocean. Pigs are good at snuffling, napping, and especially snoring, even on a boat. Pigs might have been those travelers, whose bones are buried in the ice. Mona: Pigs on a long walk. Small pig

Wilma: Around 1000 BCE, there were lots of pigs in southern Greenland. European settlers brought them there, To feed the Greenland people. Pigs can go all sorts of places, But pigs like comfort, food, and shelter. Greenland wasn’t all that friendly to the pigs, And so they didn’t stay. Mona: Take pigs along? Sure. Convince those pigs to stay? No. Not without good food.

Jorge the Boar likes pig celebrations, especially ones that include apples. Wilma: Pigs went to Newfoundland, to stay with Norse folks there. But those Norse folks had some problems that pigs just couldn’t solve. Pigs are smart and keep things clean, but those Vikings got all bossy. No pig celebrations, no pig pictures. No pig dances, or pig stories. Just lots of boar’s head songs and big, big hairy beards. The Norse folks did not thrive, not even with their pigs along. Mon

Wilma: That Columbus, he did not give, he only took. In 1493, Columbus took pigs from the Canary Islands to Cuba and Jamaica. Pigs did not like Columbus, but it was a quick trip. And pigs liked Cuba and Jamaica very much – good food, good sun, good naps. Pigs figured they could tolerate one mean guy for one short trip. Pigs had lots of piglets all across the Caribbean, So pigs might say the Columbian Compromise paid off. Mona: Wait for next boat, pigs. Work with nice folks,

Wilma: When the Spanish decided to explore the mainland, Caribbean pigs hopped aboard the ships to Florida. They’d had a run of bad luck with the Norse folks and Columbus, but pigs were optimistic. A new place with new food? “We are pigs and we adapt,” they said. And so pigs came to spread across North America, starting with its swamps and forests, Moving from the south to west and north. Mona: Pig space, people space Always looking for new space Space race. Why not share?

Wilma: Colonists came across the Atlantic and brought European pigs along. Those pigs found nuts and plants in forests, and snails along the rivers. Pigs lived wherever they could find food, in the woods and swamps, in towns and cities, too. Those pigs came to live all across the continent. Just like the Past Pigs said, pigs helped the humans. Pigs made salt pork, bacon, pepper pot stew, barbeque, and Virginia ham. Native people ate wild game, but then pigs spread across Amer

Wilma: With nuts and grains and plants and even frogs, North America gave lots of food to pigs. So a few American pigs turned into lots and lots of American pigs. Pigs ate slugs and berries on the Atlantic coast, pigs ate corn and squash in the Appalachians. Pigs ate shrubs and snakes and fruit in the coastal lowlands. Pigs have teeth just like people, and those teeth can chew most anything. Pig incisors bite and cut, pig canines tear and hold and rip, and pig molars grind. P

A brand new piglet's nose - ready to go. Wilma: Pig noses tilt up, down, and side-to-side. Pig noses sniff and smell and snuffle. Pig noses lift straw and shift feed and move soil. Pig nostrils can close so dirt doesn’t get in. In all the world, is there a more fantastic nose? Piglets are born with strong and sensitive snouts, able to sniff and shift from the very beginning. The pig nose disk is a thing of beauty – it’s the way we live out the Great Pig Way. Mona: A pig’s l

A double-decker piglet pile. Wilma: Pigs smell the world with our noses, and we feel the world with our bodies. We eat together, we sleep together, and we chat together. We are super friendly with some pigs, and less friendly with other pigs. We are pigs with other pigs. Being pigs together is what it means to be a pig. Need a nap? Cuddle up or pile on. Full body contact is how we live the Great Pig Way. Mona: Our relations? All. In the pile – one big pigness. Touch makes h

A piglet with showy spots. Wilma: Pigs all have bristles, and some of us can really put on a hair show. Mangalitsa pigs look wooly, with curly hair all over. Hereford pigs wear a red coat, and Hampshires have a belt. The breed called White Pigs are…white. Kunes are colored – ginger, black, and white; belted, spotted, mixed. Kunes are hairy – bristly, wavy, smooth, and shiny. Kunes are beautiful. Mona: Kune hair galore. Colors, patterns, and charm. Cows got none of that.

Some good evening scratches. Wilma: Pigs have perfected the art of scratching. A good scratch, a great scratch. Kunes love a long scratch. On thick skin, tough skin, bristly skin, all skin. Belly scratch, neck scratch, butt scratch, hip scratch. Scratch on a rock, scratch on the fence. Scratch on a Feeder who just might scratch you back! Mona: Scratch, scratch, scratch, and scratch. A day without scratching? No. Kunes. Scratching. Ahhh.

Wilma just before farrowing. Wilma: When sows have piglets we call it farrowing. Kune piglets are born tiny, but they grow fast. At first, piglets nurse and sleep and nurse some more. Their brains and snouts are ready, and soon their legs catch up. Then they learn to run and play and jump. But they always like to eat, and they always like to sleep. And they always make great big piglet piles. Mona: Pig gestation goes For three months, three weeks, three days. Long time for

Some piglets get a bottle... ...and some piglets nurse. Wilma: A sow’s teats are in two lines along her belly. Kune sows usually have room for at least ten piglets, often more. The sow lies on her side while her piglets nurse, stacked in busily sucking rows. Piglets hunt for the sow’s teats right away – they are born hungry. And piglets stay hungry, eating and sleeping and eating and sleeping, all piled together. But piglets worry that someone might be getting more. They nurs

A piglet sampling the dirt. Pigs snuffle and snack, pigs sample plants and dirt and search for seeds and grains. When pigs aren’t sleeping, we are moving – smelling, tasting, sorting through soil. We smack and inhale, scouring and searching for the smallest bits. Just like deer browse in the brush, and sparrows swoop in the sky, pigs snuffle in the dirt. We smell, we taste, we snout about. We eat in dirt, we sleep in dirt. The Great Pig Way is at ground level. Mona: Dirt is

Wilma and Jorge, sleeping... Wilma: Pigs sleep in the sun, pigs sleep in the shade, pigs sleep in the straw, pigs sleep in a pile. We nap, we drowse, we doze, we hit the hay and catch a wink. At night, we slumber with great deep snores. Humans run and work and fret. But sleeping feels so good. Pigs know. Stretch out and relax. Sleep like a pig. Mona: Indulge in napping. Luxuriate in slumber. Comfort. Pleasure. Pigs.

Pudge's smart balls - tucked up and tidy. Wilma: If humans want proof of pig intelligence, they can look at just one thing: pig testicles. Many mammals leave them dangling, flopping side to side. Humans haven’t fixed theirs yet, tender bits out in the breeze. Bulls sometimes step on theirs, and monkeys get them ripped right off. Not boars – they keep their testicles tucked and tidy. No squashing, no freezing, no tearing, no pinching. Smart balls – the unforgettable pig testic

A tidy piglet poop pile in the corner of the pig pen. Wilma: Human infants spew their waste without a thought and make huge messes everywhere. Not so with pigs. Even right after they are born, our piglets know to keep poop out of the nest. Pigs think about their space, and plan out how to use it. Cows poop right on their food, and pee without reflection. Contamination, sanitation, basic consideration. Get it together, everyone. Mona: Ev’ry pig joins in. No free riders here.

Wilma: People in America moved themselves around, and needed pigs to eat. So pigs in America moved around, too, walking here and there. Pigs walked across mountains and through valleys, because the drovers said to. Everyone knows about cattle drives, but that cow stuff lasted just two decades. Hog drives happened for more than fifty years, Walking hundreds of thousands of pigs from Tennessee and Kentucky to the east coast and the south. Pigs took themselves to market, and dro

Mona contemplates Porkopolis. Wilma: People in cities wanted food, and more people in more cities wanted more food. Cities like Cincinnati made pork factories where they killed the pigs. Lots of pigs. In the 1830s, Cincinnati butchered nearly 500,000 hogs. During the 1850s, Cincinnati butchered more than 2 million hogs. By the 1870s, Cincinnati butchered 6 million hogs in just ten years. So they called Cincinnati “Porkopolis.” Mona: Pigs, pigs, pigs. Butchered. Butchered. B

Hooves? She's got four of them. Wilma: So many pigs butchered, but for more than meat. With just one pig, you have four hooves. But with millions of pigs, you open a glue factory. The bodies of pigs are disassembled into products – blood, bones, hair, hides. And because the factories are so big, they can make things with all those parts. The parts can be sold and become almost more important than the meat. Humans are a long way from pig songs and pigs dances. Mona: Pigs as

A happy pig. Wilma: Now pigs are born in Iowa, on concrete floors, in factories. They are fed a special feed mix, and moved from barn to barn. Pigs grow fast, and by the time that they are nine months old, they get onto a truck. Then off the truck and get in line. Pigs are swiftly disassembled into many smaller parts. Some parts go to Japan, some parts go to another factory, some parts get made into cat food. There is no pig left, just parts. Mona: Where did the pig go? Whe

No sad-bad pigs here. No vices, either. Wilma: When we cannot sniff and when we cannot cuddle, pigs begin to act weird. People who run the factories say that pigs get “vices.” Pigs bite each other’s tails. Sows bang their crates until they bleed. Pigs scream and scream and scream. Our feet get sores, we cannot breathe fresh air. Mona: They say pig vices? No. You cannot blame the pigs. Factory vices.

In contrast to factory pigs, Jorge is in dandelion heaven. Wilma: In pig factories, pig feelings and the Great Pig Way do not exist. Sows live in crates where they cannot turn around or move. There is no dirt to snuffle, there are no pig piles, there are no pig friends. There is no pig scratching, there are no pig thoughts, there are no pig nests. Long ago, pigs came to feed the humans, but in a kindly way. This is mean. Make it stop. Mona: Pigs dead on the hoof. Pigs alive

Wilma: Mona and I continue to live out the Great Pig Way. We take care of the Feeders, and the Feeders take care of us. We snuffle, we scratch, we pile. We are pigs at the Patch. Thousands of years ago, pigs and humans came together. Here we are now, some of us together. We are KuneKunes in Montana – no pork in sight. Mona: At the Patch, pig tales. Need more pig songs, pig dances. Good start. Keep going.

Wilma, together with the rooster, Philagain. Wilma: George Bernard Shaw got it wrong. He said, “Never wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.” Perhaps George Bernard Shaw thought he was being funny. Or he never really knew a pig. Because pigs don’t wrestle. We cuddle. And you would like it – the dirt and the cuddling. Mona: Come on down and get Into dirt, the stuff that makes us all together.

Passionate Pig is grounded in the following sources: Jason Detzel, “A Brief History of the Pig in the United States” in Cornell Small Farms, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, October 7, 2019. Mark Essig, Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig, Basic Books, 2015. Jessica B. Harris, High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America, Bloomsbury, 2011. Mario Melletti and Eri Meijaard, eds., Ecology, Conservation and Management of Wild Pigs and P