I can understand why many people think pigs are violent beings. But if you want the truth, straight from a pig’s mouth, we are one of the gentlest species on earth.
We are often rough with each other simply as a sign of communication. How else to you decide who to respect? Human families that are close with each other are often rough with one another are they not? The way I see it is, being able to push someone around without feelings being hurt is a sign of friendship.
It is more common to find piles of pigs laying around next to, on top of, or near each other trying to catch some shut-eye. The piglets Baby, Olive, Dreamy and Hazel all love to lay on top of each other and snuzzle one another for comfort as their mothers are no longer with us. You see, we take comfort and solace in our fellow pigs more often than we are bossy to one another.
Sugars is a problem. The princess pig who thinks she’s the cat’s meow. I mean, just because she’s Kelly’s favourite and all the humans fear her, does NOT mean she has the right to go around ridiculing, sass-talking, bossing and bothering everyone else! DO YOU KNOW WHAT SHE DID TO ME THE OTHER DAY? She told Hamish and Cecil that I had placed her second-in-command and told them that the humans had laid out a gourmet taster plate of food just for them. Of course they followed her instructions perfectly, (my subjects are nothing if not efficient) and destroyed lunch for EVERYBODY! I would NEVER do that to any of my fellow-pigs. Such humiliation.
[sigh] If you can’t tell, speaking about Sugars gets me into a tiff.
You want to know how I keep order? And why Sugars is NOT Queen-B? Respect and trust. The others trust that I would never ask them to do anything humiliating or dangerous. I don’t get angry, although from a humans perspective it may seem that I do. I am stern with everybody. I push them away if I have to, but I never bite with intent to seriously harm. I could take a fellow-pigs ear off if I wanted to. But I don’t. There’s your proof. I can’t say I have a friend in any of the animals at the sanctuary, less I destroy my reputation. But I don’t need friends, I have respect. No one can look up to a friend as a Queen. I keep my socialisation to human interaction only.
Like any family, our group of pigs has every kind of personality you can think of. This means we clash, but we always find a way of making up, either by vocalising our issues, or simply through body-language.