The Horrifying Autosow

My friend Bob McKay sent me this 1967 picture from the archives at North Carolina State University (here) of Dr. James Lecce with a piglet and the "autosow," an effort to make piglets grow faster by replacing their natural mother. Horrifying, if not surprising. Given the contemporary debate over gestation crates, I'm somewhat surprised that this type of technological solution hasn't been put back on the table as it apparently was in the late 1960s. Must look into this further...

Pigs and Atomic Testing: Pig 311

Hot on the heels of Tirpitz, the swimming pig from World War I, comes this tale of the seemingly "indestructible" Pig 311, found swimming in the Pacific in 1946 after the testing of the atomic bomb at Bikini Atoll. This pig survived both the sinking of the Japanese cruiser Sakawa in the test and a large dose of radiation before being sent to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. According to a July 15, 1946 article in the Los Angeles Times, the animals used in the Bikini test were generally "dying like flies," although Pig 311 was only suffering from "a diminishing blood count and other internal signs of damage." These must not have proven fatal, for the Washington Post featured a photo (far left; note Goat 315 on the right) of Pig 311 arriving at the Washington Navy Yard on September 25, 1946.

There are many files about Pig 311 in the archives at the National Zoo, but until I access them, I'm not entirely sure how this story played out. Speaking of plays, though, Dr. Jonathan Neale wrote a play about Pig 311 that apparently was performed in 1986. Some pig, indeed!

Thanks again to "Animals as Cold Warriors" website (here) for turning me on to this tale.

Pigs and Atomic Testing: Operation Plumbbob

I've been obsessed with atomic testing since our trip to the Nevada Test Site (tour info here) back in March. I've finally tracked down some of the pig-related aspects of atomic testing. For today, here are stills from the film documenting 1957s Operation Plumbbob, which used pigs to gauge the effects of both atomic blast and radiation. This image comes from the on-line version of the U.S. National Library of Medicine exhibition "Animals as Cold Warriors: Missiles, Medicine and Man's Best Friend," which you can find here. I highly recommend a look, especially for the images, such as the 1952 advertisement sponsored by a pharmaceutical company headlined "We must thank animals if good comes from the atomic bomb." The image of a Lassie-like collie under the mushroom cloud is priceless.