Wroezelaar, a toy for pigs

Pigs are smart creatures. And mean. Some speculate that pigs in captivity can develop a poor disposition because they're bored, making Sharon Geschiere's "Wroezelaar," a play toy for swine, an essential accessory for an emotionally healthy abattoir environment.

Having been chased down by one-too-many 1,000-pound free-range sows on my uncle's farm, I'm not entirely convinced that pigs aren't genetically predisposed to orneriness. But since I also believe that the best thing we can do for livestock before slaughtering and eating their bodies is to give them a happy, healthy existence, I'm can't help but support piggy entertainment. Might I also suggest weekly showings of Babe and Charlotte's Web?

There's no denying that pig on the left looks super stoked. May he smile all the way to my plate.

Design to Business winners announced [Design.nl via Core77]

[#1 posted by Hal , July 2, 2008 8:13 AM]

There is an EU directive requiring that pigs have access to "manipulable materials".
A happy unstressed pig is a tasty pig.

[#2 posted by Yep , July 2, 2008 11:11 AM]

Bringing back some delightful childhood memories of fear mixed with exhilaration - the pig pen on a friends farm was a fenced, wooded area. We'd hop the fence with a bucket of feed, shake it and then hear the ominous rustling and snorting coming from the woods. Then, we'd hightail it down the wooded paths, hearing "them" coming after us, freaking ourselves out imagining the alien horde. Good times. Until they caught up. Then it was every kid for himself.

Hey look, I'm sharing.

[#3 posted by TonksPlum , July 2, 2008 3:22 PM]

Yeah.. no, I can't eat something I watched playing merrily.

[#4 posted by Anonymous , July 3, 2008 4:03 AM]

This one, or something like it, may well actually make it into full scale production. Not for any sort of humane can't-let-the-animals-suffer sorts of reasons; but because of how badly pigs respond to stress.

The rather disgustingly named "pale soft exudative muscle" is the term for an equally unpalatable and unsaleable form of pork that results when pigs are extremely stressed in the period before slaughter. Even better, there is a heritable condition in some pigs called "porcine stress syndrome" that makes affected pigs particularly vulnerable to stress, up to and including just dropping dead of it. All pigs can produce pale soft exudative muscle if stressed enough; but PSS pigs are particularly vulnerable. On the plus side, this makes pigs a useful animal model for anaesthetic induced malignant hyperthermia.

Because of all this, keeping the lives of pigs at least endurable is generally seen as good business.