Take a trip with us for a second. It’s a Sunday afternoon.
You’re at the Harrison County fair in southern Indiana. You’ve got a beer in one hand and some mind-blowing funnel cake in the other. You can already feel your arteries hardening, and you’re looking for a way to lose those last few shreds of your dignity.
What do you do? Sign up for a demolition derby? Ride the tilt-a-whirl until you puke on a fourth-grader? Get in a drunken fight with that clown that’s been eyeing you all day?
No, you wrestle a pig.
And why not? It’s your right as an American to be the dumbest one in a wrestling ring with a farm animal. But there are people out there ?trying to ruin your perfect day at the fair.
The River Valley Humane Society said last week it will be going in front of Indiana’s Crawford County fair board in order to exclude pig wrestling from this year’s fair festivities.
Now, for those of you that have never heard of this glorious sport, pig wrestling is where a team of four humans are given 30 to 45 seconds to grab a pig and touch it to a rubber tire within the ring.
This usually involves the four people having to roughly grab and throw the animal around, as it would seem the pig doesn’t see this as a good use of its time.
Though the animal is getting roughhoused a little, we here at the Editorial Board don’t really view this as horrific animal cruelty. Our reasoning for this is pigs are absolutely gigantic. The average domesticated pig can weigh between 240-280 pounds depending on what the pig is being raised for.
That’s a lot of bacon to throw at a tire, and a pig at the upper end of this scale would see humans trying to wrestle it as more of an inconvenience than anything else.
It should also be noted the pigs are treated extremely well, considering they are raised to be slaughtered for food. All pigs must have impeccable health records and must also walk through disinfectant before getting in the ring. There is also a veterinarian on site at all times, just in case something were to happen.
So, that being said, why is the Humane Society focusing on something this trivial? Well, for the same reason PETA thinks getting pretty girls naked has something to do with animal ?cruelty.
It gets attention. Do they actually care about the pigs wrestling in the ring? Probably, but we think their main concern is trying to get people to talk about this and raise awareness for any and all animal cruelty.
Though it’s always nice to raise awareness about hurting animals, a move like this is really going to backfire on them.
With all the horrific things that happen to animals in the food production industry, picking something as benign as pig wrestling makes the Humane Society look like it doesn’t even understand the issues its fighting against. But the inhumane treatment of animals in the food industry is an issue entirely of its own.
So, after all this, the question ?remains. Is pig wrestling animal ?cruelty?
Not really, unless you consider wasting a Sunday as cruelty.
