this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2023
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IME cows were big, dumb and not at all interested in people. Pigs on the other hand have very clear personalities.
Every and any animal has a personality; you just need more time to discover it on some species than others.
Cows can be very tame, if from a milk breed, and brutal pointy ended stomping and biting machines if from beef breeds.
Pigs are not tame, at all. I've raised potbelly pigs and they could absolute sweets or complete assholes capable of biting or headbutt you without warning. It's the only farm animal that can revert to feral state.
And chickens know they were once dinossaurs. Get them in sufficient numbers and they become dangerous. Ever seen a fox afraid inside a chickencoop? I have; at a 100:1 ratio, the poor fox was hoping for a fine meal but was instead made a meal.
I have more experience with pigs than anything else so I'll take your word for it.
Any horror stories?
No because they were not slaughtered on site but you could tell they all knew when someone wasn't coming back. It made it hard to eat pork realizing that part.
Pigs can have a sense of numbers, like any herd animal. I get your point. But there are breeds and breeds.
To my very limited personal knowledge, landrace breeds tend to be more like that, especially breeds selected to be grazed and kept outside, which made sense as it would be desirable to have a closely knit group, where individuals would look out for each other. And this gave rise to breeds that can be extremely dangerous to other animals, including humans.
Talking with a few pig herders that live around the area I live, Inwas told more "modern" pig breeds tend to be less group and motherly care driven, to the point of sows mauling piglets out of food drive.
These were kept outside except in rain or during the height of winter so that might be a factor.