Pigs are smart? Who Knew?!

This is a picture of two pigs going into a maze looking for food. You may ask, "Why?" Well I can answer that, but first we need to talk about a few other important(and interesting) topics. Pigs are said to be nothing but dumb farm animals, yet what if I were to tell you that they are much more than that. Aside from being quite adorable, they are actually intelligent animals who possess an outstanding memory and are able to trick other pigs out of getting something that another pig might want. In a research study done by Candace Croney, pigs were put in mazes to see if they were able to find food, and even given the chance to play video games(that's crazy, right?!). In an article written by Andy Wright, Pigheaded: How Smart are Swine?, he explains the entire process and gives quotes from the researches themselves. Croney's pigs were given joysticks made just for them, and they were able to play a video game in which they moved the joystick around with their feet or snout and hit their target. (I think Crush from Finding Nemo said it best when he says, "That's so totally awesome!" I mean, a pig playing video games? That's unheard of!)
Now, I bet you're still wondering about the pigs in a maze picture. Okay, I'll tell you. They put one small pig into the maze and allowed it to go look for the food. It was allowed to try twice,and the second time it usually found the food faster because it was able to remember where it was from the first run. The researchers did this for a few days then put a much larger pig in with the smaller pig. The smaller pig was nervous around the larger pig, and laid low for a few of the runs. Until finally the smaller pig got tired of not getting any food, so he started to trick the other pig into believing the food was in a different spot than where it actually was, and the smaller pig went and took the food for himself. That's pretty impressive. I mean, if I was that pig I would of just laid in the corner and pouted so that I didn't get in a fight with the large pig who could just sit on me.

I think this research study has brought forth a lot of questions, such as, "Are pigs an animal that we should try and save from slaughter because of their intelligence?" or the question that Candace Croney gives, “If we've decided to eat pigs despite the fact that they are smart, should we not at least use the information that we have to make their lives as positive as possible up until the point when we decide, ‘Well now they've become food?’ These questions are ones that may not be answered for a very long time. The human race is to focused on what is right for us and not what is right for every living creature on this planet. Everyone and everything deserves a nice life, and the human race as a whole should make sure that everyone, including animals, has a nice life. 

Here's a short video showing one of the pigs playing the video game!