Pigs as Pets Truffle Hunters and Other Surprising Uses

Not every pig ends up as pork. Some end up on your couch. And some end up doing jobs you would never expect from an animal most people only associate with breakfast.

Pigs as Pets

Pigs make genuinely wonderful pets. You can get a potbellied pig, one of those so-called teacup pigs (which are really just young potbellied pigs that will grow), or even a regular farm pig.

Here is something that might surprise you. The author found that her farm pigs actually had a better temperament than her potbellied pig. That potbellied pig was litter-box trained and lived inside the house, but personality-wise, the big farm pigs were gentler and easier to work with.

The secret is getting them young and handling them daily. Touch them, walk them on a lead, get them comfortable around people and different situations. Do this consistently and you end up with a pig that acts more like a dog than a farm animal.

How far can this go? The author walked her 1,000-pound breeding boar on a lead. A thousand pounds. On a lead. Like a dog. That is what consistent daily handling does.

And look, if you bought a pig to raise for meat but got attached to it along the way, it is totally okay to change your mind and make it a pet. It happens more than people admit.

Drug and Explosives Detection

Pigs have an incredible sense of smell. Law enforcement has used this, mostly with smaller breeds like potbellied pigs, to sniff out drugs and explosives. They work on the same principle as detection dogs, but pigs arguably have an even better nose.

This is not widespread, and you will not see pigs at the airport anytime soon. But it is a real application that shows just how intelligent and trainable these animals are.

Truffle Hunting

This is the one most people have heard of. Pigs can locate truffles buried up to 3 feet underground. This ability goes back to at least the 15th century, and there is a fascinating reason why pigs are so good at it.

Truffles produce a chemical that smells almost identical to boar sex hormones. So female pigs are naturally drawn to truffles because, to them, it smells like a mate. They do not need training. They are just following their instincts.

But there is a big problem. Pigs eat the truffles they find. A single truffle can be worth hundreds of dollars, and your pig just had an expensive snack. Truffle hunters have to be fast to grab the truffle before the pig devours it.

This problem got serious enough that Italy actually banned pig truffle hunting in 1985. The other issue was damage. Pigs root aggressively, and they were destroying the delicate mycelia (the underground fungal networks) that produce truffles. Killing the mycelia means no more truffles from that spot, possibly for years.

Because of this, most truffle hunters have switched to dogs. Dogs can be trained to find truffles without eating them, and they are much gentler on the ground. But there is still something romantic about the image of a farmer and a pig wandering through an Italian forest looking for buried treasure.

Pig Cheese: Yes, Really

This one is wild. There is a cheese called porcorino that is made from pig’s milk. It is a rare Tuscan cheese, and as far as anyone knows, a single family produces it.

Why is it so rare? Two reasons.

First, pigs only produce about 13 pounds of milk per day. Compare that to a dairy cow producing 60 to 80 pounds, and you see the problem. There is just not much milk to work with.

Second, have you ever tried to milk a pig? Pigs have around 14 small teats, they do not stand still, and they are not exactly cooperative about the whole process. It is extremely difficult. You basically need a pig that trusts you completely and has the patience of a saint.

The resulting cheese reportedly has a rich, slightly gamy flavor. But unless you are visiting that one family in Tuscany, you are probably never going to try it.

Book: Backyard Farming: Raising Pigs Author: Kim Pezza ISBN: 978-1-57826-621-0 Publisher: Hatherleigh Press, 2016

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