Some Bad News For Pigs

A couple of news items greeted me on my return from spring break in Florida. More than 3000 pigs died in a fire at a Hutterite hog farm outside of Winnipeg, Saskatchewan on Saturday. Authorities think the fire was caused by a faulty exhaust fan. The fire spread rapidly through three structures thanks to other exhaust fans. According to the CBC (here), the pig operation is the main source of income for the 85 members of the Vermillion Farms community. If, like me, you are curious about the Hutterites, you can consult their official website here.

In Tularosa, New Mexico Leanne Barkemeyer kept approximately 20 pigs on her land. While this in itself is not a crime, she apparently couldn't take care of all the pigs, leading sheriff's deputies to shoot and kill eight of her pigs. According to Deputy Nobert Sanchez, "She stated that she could no longer take care of the animals, that we needed to do what we needed to do with them." The pigs were shot after one of them charged a deputy. According to KOAT 7 News (here) the rest of the pigs will be rounded up and shipped to sanctuaries in Florida or Arizona. The Alamagordo Daily News has a good article as well (here) that provides more detail about these "half-feral" pigs, which were both pot-bellied pigs and domestic pigs.

A Disturbing Video from Nike

My colleague Cris Hernandez shared a strange and disturbing video from Nike with me. It features a pig who is having nightmares about being roasted on a spit or turned into sizzling bacon. While that part of the flash animation makes sense--it seems fair to assume that pigs wouldn't want to be killed and eaten--the next scene does not. The pig finds himself on a conveyor belt, where he's squashed flat and blown up into a football, which flies through a clear blue sky towards the uprights. This time the pig is smiling in his sleep at this presumably sweet dream. You can see this for yourself here (you'll find the pig video on the far right of the Nike "Show Some Love" screen) or here (via iFilm). My earlier post on footballs as pigskins can be found here.

By the way, if you'd like to watch some of the cartoons mentioned in my posts from last week, you can find links posted by Axis of Evel Knievel's David Noon in the comments section. Thanks, man...