An editor’s letter for a Vox magazine issue on Aug. 4, 2011 featuring Ozark pigs and the race to save them from extinction
My mom overuses the expression “This house is a 200.” But during my childhood, that phrase was quite fitting. My dad was a middle school life science teacher. He did more than the average science teacher and taught his students with a classroom full of animals. Because we had to go every weekend to feed and care for the animals and keep them during summer and winter breaks, I considered them my own.
I had saltwater and freshwater fish, lizards, a salamander, guinea pigs, hamsters, snakes, mice (for the snakes) and even Madagascar hissing cockroaches. Outside the classroom, we also had a very loud and obnoxious female parrot named Peter.
But as flexible as my parents were with pets, they never let me have a pot-bellied pig. Even though they eat slop, I’ve always loved pigs. Babe, Wilbur, the tiny pig in galoshes: I love them all.
This week’s feature (Page 8) describes a rare breed of pig called the mulefoot hog. which is different from normal pigs because of their non-cloven feet. There are about 50 breeders around the
U.S. for this special swine, and a dozen are in Missouri.
The feature also tells the story of the Missouri farmers who care for and protect these hogs to help keep them from extinction. One 94-year-old man is the link for how Missouri became a home for these hogs, which are also called Ozark pigs.
Although they are cute like pot-bellied pigs, the heritage hogs aren’t meant to be pets: They make flavorful meat that is more similar to beef than typical pork.
The feature is informative and full of cute pig photos, but beware. The story tells of the piglets’ lives from birth to death and even onto the kitchen table.
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