One experiment shows that pigs in mass farming are terribly bored. And boredom is not a joke, but serious bullying
When a small window opens in the wall on the far right, a tasty morsel awaits the pig there. When the window on the left opens, nothing. Pigs are smart and learn quickly.
But what if neither the far right nor the far left window opens, but something in between? Will the pig go have a look?
It depends on whether the pig is an optimist or a pessimist. Experts believe that this and similar tests can reveal how fat pigs are. That is, as with humans, pigs depressed by terrible boredom become pessimistic.
The pioneering experiment actually took place not far from Vienna and the results are currently awaited. But there is every chance that the team of researcher Sarah Hinz from the Vienna Institute for Domestic Animals will prove for the first time something that has been little thought about until now - pigs are bored.
That is, those pigs whose meat we usually eat and which come from feedlots where tens of thousands of animals are kept. They usually don't even have a square meter to themselves.
"They are very intelligent"
Pork meat, critics say, is obscenely cheap and proof that man - for the sake of profit and eating habits - is ready not only to kill the animal, which has always been done, but also to make it suffer terribly.
Hince advocates a drastic reduction in livestock. "We actually know exactly what pigs need." They are not only very intelligent, but also very curious."
"In the free nature, they are very concerned with their surroundings." This is in stark contrast to the monotonous conditions in which we keep animals," she told the Vienna Standard newspaper.
Colleagues and Hince kept 128 pigs - all taken from slaughterhouses as small piglets. Half was kept as in mass production, half had straw and soil to grow on, different toys and stimulants for creativity. Then the two groups were compared on tests.
Boredom is terrible
Current boredom is very unpleasant. Ten years ago, in an experiment, subjects (humans, not pigs) had to sit for fifteen minutes in a bare room and do nothing. To simply think. They described the experience as unpleasant, time passed slowly.
The researchers then gave them a button with which they could, if they wanted to, give themselves an electric shock. Close to half of them, out of pure boredom, chose to inflict pain on themselves.
If occasional boredom is boring, then chronic or existential boredom is a serious threat to health. It can lead to depression. Perhaps this is exactly what happens with animals that are kept so that they are as financially profitable as possible.
"Everyone agrees that we shouldn't cause animals unnecessary pain," said Nico Müller, an animal ethicist at the University of Basel.
"But pain and stress are only two forms of unpleasant conditions. We hardly think of others. And there are good reasons to assume that, overall, boredom represents the biggest blow to the welfare of the animals we keep."
Industrial farming can't be "humane"?
Miller added for the magazine "Reportaže" that in modern zoos care is taken to keep the animals entertained, but there is no favorable conclusion for the mass production of meat:
"What is possible in a zoo cannot be simply transferred to the breeding of useful animals." The question is whether it is possible to eliminate boredom in the industrial breeding of animals, and at the same time the industrial breeding as we know it will survive at all."
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