The Pig is the most misunderstood and most slandered of all our domestic animals. One of our worst insults is to call a person a pig or a hog or a swine. If the pig is greedy, dirty or fat, it is because man made him that way during the seven thousand years they have lived together.
Fat hogs are the result of selective breeding to produce more lard.
Given an opportunity the pig, like its wild ancestor, does not overeat and prefers clean water and a clean bed to the filth of a pig sty. Among all our farm animals they are ranked most intelligent. Many millions of years ago there were various types of pigs and pig- like animals whose bones are found fossilized in rocks today. They ranged in size from species like our little American peccary up to beasts as large as a bison. Among them are fossil swine very similar to our barnyard pig.