The tangled tale of humans and pigs stretches back millennia, and along the way these snout‑filled companions have left a trail of bizarre anecdotes. Below are 10 weird stories that show just how oddly influential pigs have been in shaping our history.
10 Weird Stories About Pigs
10 Pigs Discover Healing Waters
Bath, the English town famed for its steaming springs, owes its fame to a legend involving porcine patients. The Romans, drawn by the mist‑shrouded pools that bubble up at a blistering 46 °C (115 °F) through a fissure in the earth, built grand baths that still echo today.
According to myth, the curative powers of those waters were first noticed by a herd of pigs. The story centers on Bladud, a legendary Briton prince who, after studying in Athens, contracted leprosy. Stripped of his royal prospects, he was relegated to tending a pigsty.
Unfortunately, the pigs caught his disease as well. True to their stoic nature, they ambled off to wallow in the nearby mud, oblivious to the contagion.
When they returned, Bladud observed that the mud had somehow cured the swine of leprosy. He himself rolled in the warm, mineral‑rich mud, and, miraculously, the disease vanished from his skin. Whether fact or fable, the tale says the city of Bath was founded on that very spot, and pig statues still pepper the town as a nod to the legend.
9 St. Anthony’s Pig
St. Anthony, famed for his battles against demonic forces, once faced Satan in the guise of a monstrous boar. Rather than slaying the creature, Anthony showed it compassion, driving the devil away and leaving a friendly pig by his side. This act cemented the animal’s status as a patron of pig farmers.
During the Middle Ages, the Hospital Brothers of St. Anthony—a charitable order dedicated to treating the afflicted disease known as St. Anthony’s Fire—received pigs as donations. These “Tantony pigs” were typically the runt of the litter, fitted with tiny bells to mark their affiliation.
After being released onto the streets, the pigs fended for themselves. Those that survived to adulthood were sold, and the proceeds funded the brothers’ charitable work. In La Alberca, Spain, a tradition persists: each year a pig named “San Anton” is released, fed, and later raffled, with the earnings supporting the local church.
8 Pig Toilets
Human waste management has always been a sticky problem. In ancient Europe, chamber pots were often simply dumped into the streets, creating a public health nightmare. Meanwhile, ancient China devised a surprisingly pragmatic solution.
The Chinese “pig toilet” was essentially a latrine that jutted over a pig pen. Human excrement would cascade straight into a trough where the pigs, with their indiscriminate appetites, would gobble it up. Archaeological models of this arrangement have been uncovered in tombs, and the same Chinese character can denote both “toilet” and “pigsty.”
While the concept sounds unappealing to modern sensibilities, it was an effective way to neutralize harmful bacteria—pigs’ digestive systems broke down many pathogens. However, the practice also risked transferring parasites between humans and swine, especially tapeworms, if the pigs were later consumed.
7 Learned Pigs
Pigs are undeniably clever, with emotional lives that can rival many domesticated animals. Their ability to remember tasks and form bonds with humans makes them seem almost human‑like. Winston Churchill famously quipped, “Dogs look up to you, cats look down on you. Give me a pig! He looks you in the eye and treats you as an equal.”
In the 19th century, a number of enterprising showmen decided to showcase porcine intellect. Samuel Bisset, a traveling entertainer, initially presented a cat opera, but soon turned his attention to pigs. He spent sixteen months training a single swine in a variety of arts.
The result was a “learned pig” that could allegedly spell names without direction, recount accounts, anticipate thoughts, tell the exact time down to the second, distinguish married from unmarried guests, and even kneel in obeisance. Audiences were dazzled by the animal’s seemingly supernatural abilities.
Bisset’s success sparked a craze, and many other learned pigs toured Britain. Toby, a sapient pig, could tell time, and a New England “Pig of Knowledge” even met President John Adams, further cementing the notion that pigs could be trained to perform astonishing feats.
6 Pigs And Dental Hygiene
Today, a toothache sends most of us to a dentist, but in antiquity, a rotten tooth could be a death sentence. In the animal kingdom, survival often hinges on healthy teeth, and humans have long benefited from pig‑derived dental tools.
Ancient Chinese innovators crafted the first toothbrushes from bone or bamboo stems, attaching bristles made from the stiff hairs of wild boar backs. These bristles functioned much like modern nylon ones, scrubbing away plaque and decay.
When the design traveled west, pig hair was deemed too harsh for delicate gums, leading to a shift toward horsehair. It wasn’t until the 1930s that synthetic nylon finally replaced animal hair altogether. Nevertheless, eco‑conscious consumers can still purchase wooden brushes fitted with pig bristles—these are often made from hair that would otherwise be discarded as a by‑product of the meat industry.
5 Pigasus Runs For President
The 1960s were a time of cultural upheaval, with many Americans yearning for leaders who could break the mold. In 1968, the Youth International Party—better known as the Yippies—decided that a porcine candidate would make a bold statement.
They nominated a pig named Pigasus, declaring, “They nominate a president, and he eats the people. We nominate a president, and the people eat him.” The stunt was meant to lampoon the political establishment and highlight the absurdity of the electoral process.
At the first rally, Pigasus and seven Yippies were arrested. While the activists faced trial, the fate of the pig remains a mystery; rumors suggest he may have been devoured by a police officer. Regardless, the episode stands as a quirky footnote in American political theater.
4 King Neptune The $19 Million Pig
During World II, the United States government sought every possible avenue to raise funds for the war effort, and war bonds became a popular vehicle. One unlikely hero emerged in the form of a porky patriot.
Parker Neptune, later dubbed King Neptune, was born into a litter of twelve piglets. While his siblings faded into obscurity, Neptune’s destiny was far more spectacular. Originally slated for a celebratory feast to promote war bond sales, a clever idea transformed him into a living fundraiser.
Neptune was wrapped in a navy flag, and various parts of his body—leg, shoulder, bristle—were auctioned to bond purchasers. Remarkably, none of the new owners ever demanded the pig be slaughtered to claim their prize. The swine toured the nation, dressed in a regal robe, crown, and earrings, raising an astonishing $19 million (equivalent to over $250 million today) for the war effort.
When King Neptune passed away in 1950, he received a full military burial, cementing his legacy as the most profitable porcine fundraiser in American history.
3 Pig War Of 1859
The United States and Britain have not always enjoyed seamless relations, and in 1859 a seemingly trivial incident threatened to ignite a full‑scale conflict over the San Juan Islands, a strategic archipelago straddling what is now Washington State and British Columbia.
The root of the tension lay in an 1846 treaty that left the precise boundary of the San Juan Islands ambiguous. Both American and British settlers claimed the islands, setting the stage for a clash.
On June 15, 1859, a British farmer’s pig wandered onto an American farmer’s plot and devoured a portion of his potatoes. In retaliation, the American shot the pig dead. The British authorities demanded the American be arrested, prompting the farmer to request protection from U.S. troops.
The Oregon commander dispatched 66 soldiers to the island, while the governor of British Columbia sent three warships to intimidate the Americans. War seemed imminent.
When the British commander was ordered to land troops and retake the island, he refused, stating he would not “involve two great nations in a war over a squabble about a pig.” The dispute was ultimately sent to arbitration, and the San Juan Islands were awarded to the United States.
2 Pigs On Trial
Pigs, despite their domesticated status, can be formidable and occasionally lethal due to their size, strong jaws, and insatiable appetite. Over the centuries, several incidents have led to pigs being held accountable in a very literal sense.
In 15th‑century France, a fashion of swaddling infants tightly left young children vulnerable to being swallowed whole by a hungry sow. In 1457, a pig in a French village ate a child, prompting authorities to put the animal and its piglets on trial for murder.
The sow was found guilty and publicly hanged, while the piglets were released. Such animal trials were not uncommon in medieval Europe, where a variety of crimes—including the murder of farmers, the consumption of communion wafers, and other transgressions—were adjudicated in courts of law.
These bizarre proceedings reflect the era’s intertwining of superstition, religious belief, and legal practice, casting pigs as both victims and villains in the annals of history.
1 War Pigs
Elephants were among the most fearsome weapons in ancient warfare, capable of breaking enemy formations with their massive trunks and tusks. Yet even these colossal beasts had a strange Achilles’ heel.
The Roman author Pliny the Elder recorded that “the very least sound of the grunting of the hog terrifies them.” Other historical accounts confirm that the shriek of a pig could send war elephants into a panicked frenzy.
During the siege of Megara, the city’s defenders seized this weakness. They coated pigs in oil, set them ablaze, and released the screaming animals into the enemy camp. The terrified elephants turned on their own soldiers, causing chaos and inflicting heavy casualties on the Macedonian forces. The fate of the pigs, however, remains unrecorded.
Thus, a humble swine became an unexpected weapon of war, proving that sometimes the smallest creatures can tip the scales of battle.