A Tale of Tails

By Drew Fry

Pigs are incredibly expressive animals. They have a whole vocabulary of different oinks, grunts, barks, and squeals that can communicate anything from “Hey, good to see you!” to “HEY, one more step and I will eat you!” Part of our job on the farm is making sure the pigs are contented and appropriately stimulated in their environment so that most of what we hear are the contented grunts of pigs at ease and satisfying their natural curiosity about everything around them.

Pigs also have their own body language, communicating volumes through their overall posture, ears, gait, and especially their tails. One of the first details we often associate with pigs is the cute, curly tail. So long as that tail stays curled up, the pig is generally happy and healthy. A droopy tail can mean that an animal is agitated or feeling unwell. This is a strange quirk of domestication; wild pigs/boars have straight tails that don’t curl. Theories abound, but somewhere in the process of selecting breeding stock for docility, size, efficiency, etc., humans helped develop the curly tail.

As pigs have become increasingly commercialized and treated more as a commodity than an animal, humans have started removing those curly tails soon after birth. Pigs in such an unnatural environment without much to do will begin to chew on the tails of the pigs around them. A wounded tail attracts more biting, and this process sometimes ends with pigs proving just how omnivorous they can be when they cannibalize the wounded pig.

Tail docking can limit concerns in a cramped commercial environment. Our preference is to change the environment and let the pigs be pigs! Our pigs have access to shelter when they need it, but spend the majority of their time outside rooting in the dirt, napping in the sun, and otherwise entertaining themselves. Can you spot the curly tails of contented pigs in the picture?