PIGS AND PREJUDICE

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 36, 11 August 1923, Page 24

PIGS AND PREJUDICE

POSTHUMOUS APPRECIATION.

"The pig," the dramatic critic of "The Times" wrote recently, "has never been honourably connected with man in chronicle or legend." Later in its editorial columns, "The Times" commented humorously upon the statement. The judgment has a ring of prejudice in it.. Some defender will probably discover, in folklore or in fairy story, an isolated example of an heroic, or at least an honourable, pig, and will claim to have disproved the damning generalisation. But the generalisation will stand, for the prejudice is universal. It is one of many similar prejudices which govern the relations between men and animals, and it is, perhaps, the strongest of them .all. There has always been doubt about dogs and cats, some using their names a3 words of abuse and others making gods of them. Dogs of Jezebel's day were clearly objects of contempt, and even now there is many a rough phrase with a canine metaphor in it; but doga have made undoubted progress in human affections, and nursery books are full of kindly legends about them. Cats, too, have had a varying fortune throughout history, being-worshipped almost as often as they have been, kicked. Even asses, though their name is ordinarily a synonym for folly, are known to be, neither so foolish nor so stubborn as they look. Appearances are against them; but they came out well of the story of Balaam, and they have given a good account of themselves in other places than Cevenries. Bears and lions, mice and elephants, Scriptural whales and fabulous dolphins, have all something .to their credit. The pig is isolated in his ignominy, unless the snake is to be reckoned a sharer of it.

This is strange, for human affections generally have their root in human interest, .and a pig is a daily benefactor. He exists inexpensively, he has no dietary fads, he does little harm while alive, and his good lives after him when dead. He is not dangerous like the lion, or intrusive like the mouse. If he is fat, _it is because men like him fat; if he is dirty, it is because men keep him dirty; if he eats greedily unpleasant things which daintier creatures would reject, it is because he is an accommodating beast. Chronicle and legend have done him injustice. Only when he is very small does he share, with other youngsters, that transient human affection which prefers a kitten to 'a cat. If he is small enough we make lucky charms in his image, or find the shape of his tail humorous, or even pay him the honour of a nursery story about hrs gouig to market. But the pig who went to market was a little pig, and, though it is possible for a kitten to grow into a favourite cat, the old age of pio- 3 j s without hope. They are weighed down with prejudice, and, until they are roasted, are treated with a contempt that they have done nothing to deserve.