Help me settle this.

[Chickerdoodle13]

Really any uncooked meat can pose a risk to many animals. You shouldn't really have to worry about it as long as you cook your meat very well for consumption. There are only a few things that can survive high levels of heat and most of these diseases form during storage like botulism and clostridium.

I know I won't change anyone's opinion on this matter if they are already set in what they believe, but if you provide your pigs with adequate food, water, shelter, and a relatively stress free environment, you should never have an issue with cannibalism no matter what you feed. You'll always have anomalies, and perhaps feeding raw might present a slightly (and I refer to a VERY small) higher risk of turning pigs cannibalistic, but if you think about it, dogs that are fed a raw diet are really no more likely to go and antagonize a cow because it ate a roast for dinner than a dog fed dog food.

 

[SillyChicken]

a pig is not going to "turn" canibalistic unless there is no other food source, and to be a canibal that means they would just eat other pigs (eating of one's own species).

They're omnivores they'll eat everything....so you're right, she's just ill informed. (kinda like needing a rooster to get eggs from a hen)

 

[sourland]

Trichinosis may be "about" non existant, but I worked with a Hungarian woman whose family was infected with the disease. Part of their tradition included a partially cooked pork dish. They had purchased their pork from a farmer who fed offal (uncooked) to his pigs. This was probably 20 years ago. I would guess much has been done to eliminate Trich since then.

 

[dewey]

The U.S. averages just 11 (eleven) cases of trich yearly out of over 300,000,000 people. Very few cases in the last 40 years.

What's concerning to me is the chance of injury from tripping over something on the way out to barn to feed the piggies.

http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/trichinellosis/epi.html

 

[herfrds]

Go ahead and feed them cooked or uncooked meat. Do whatever you want, but never let the pigs take you down.

Back in the early 1900's just south of a friends place a guy raised a large number of pigs/hogs in a pen. He shot animals and threw them into the pen to feed them.
His 17 year old son went into the pen to water them. They took him down and ate him.
Guy went out there and shot every single pig, then burned them.
He left the area shortly after that.
Several different families told me that story because their family members were around when it happened.

THAT is why I never never fed mine meat.


Just this fall there were two pigs next to each other in the 4-H barn that got to fighting. One ended up with a torn ear. It had to be placed in a pen by it's self because the other pigs kept trying to get at it. These are well fed pigs.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

One of my relatives had a heart attack and fell in with the hogs. They ate him or parts of him, too. Growing up, the subject came up a few times. All my relatives would get all somber and just nod their heads.

 

[Barred Rocks forever]

i knew somone who had a bucket of cheese burgers for there pigs

 

[dewey]

Quote:
Same experience in our family. Heart attack, collapsed part way over fence, hogs dragged him in and ate him. The hogs had not been fed meat.

Meat is not an aquired taste for pigs. Pigs never fed meat are as dangerous as those fed meat. Not feeding them scrap meat is not going to change them into herbivores.

 

[redhen]

Are you all saying my Hammie will EAT me if i fall in his pen?? Nooooooo, he LOVES his mommy..
Say it isnt so...

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

It's all about how you handle your animals too. Obviously a wild wolf is a lot more dangerous than your pet dog, but both can potentially cause the same harm. I think the difference between these stories/experiences and the few pigs you have in your backyard for pets and meat is that they've never been handled, or handled very little. Pigs are a dangerous animal. As someone else mentioned, their danger is not related to whether or not you feed them meat. If you allow the opportunity to present, a pig may eat a chicken or even you. Obviously you shouldn't jump into a pen of wild hogs and try to play with them. I guess it's similar to a horse. Horses are great animals, and many of them are very friendly. That doesn't mean they can't kill you with one wrong move!

Our pig was the friendliest thing, but he still had sharp tusks. We loved him to death, but we were always careful about putting any body part near his mouth. He was playful and could very easily injure without meaning to!