An end to pig ignorance

Perhaps it is because of this that they hate sudden loud noises, which speed up their heart rate and blood pressure.

In 1933, Big Bill, from Tennessee, entered the record books weighing in at 2,552lb (182 stone)! The smallest pig in the world is the Pigmy Hog, 10in tall and weighing 10lb. Social histories are full of references to pigs.

In the 15th century, King Louis XI of France liked to be cheered up by a troupe of pigs, in fancy dress and ribbons, dancing to bagpipes.

Jazz singer Josephine Baker often appeared on stage in the Twenties with a team of dainty, high-stepping perfumed pigs, frills round their necks.

The Earl of Edgecumbe and his countess took their beloved pet pig, Cupid, to meals and introduced her to London society. She was eventually buried in a gold coffin beneath an opulent monument.

Until the mid-1850s, piggeries flourished in backstreets of most English towns. To have a sty in the yard was considered almost as essential to newly-weds as having a living room or bed.

German socialist Friedrich Engels, in Manchester in the mid-19th century, was amazed by members of the Irish populationwho 'loved their pigs as the Arab his horse... he eats and sleeps with it, his children play with it, ride upon it, roll in the dirt with it, as anyone may see repeated in all the great towns of England'.

Dickens was astonished by the number of pigs running loose on the streets of New York.

I enjoyed reading about the strange bond that exists between pigs and the famous black truffles of Perigord. These fungi give off a potent whiff 0that mimics the testosterone smell of wild boars in the mating season.

The smell filters up through the soil, causing passing sows to dig down in great excitement to what they think will be a sexy boar in a burrow. Canny pig owners sell these gourmet truffles for £600 a pound.

I hated reading about Sir Robert Baden-Powell (founder of the Boy Scouts) who, during his service with the 13th Hussars in India, enjoyed the sport of pig-sticking.

He relished stabbing wild pigs with a seven-foot lance and wrote a gloating book extolling the sport as 'a mental tonic'. Shame!

In Watson's book, the pig comes across as such a delightful animal that I can no longer even think about things like pork chipolatas or bacon sandwiches.

Winston Churchill once said: 'Cats look down on you, dogs look up to you, but pigs look you in the eyes as equals.'

Quite so. So let us not take the lovable creature for grunted.