# So . . . Pigs are smelly **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 12, 2014, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-pigs-are-smelly/704469 "2014-11-12T19:04:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2014, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-pigs-are-smelly/704469/21 "2014-11-14T04:04:01Z")
When I was in college, my apartment complex one year was across the street from the university swine unit. It wasn’t that big, so usually the smell wasn’t that strong. I didn’t mind my swine neighbors as much as some of my human neighbors. Also, I took animal science that year. It was a very easy walk the day we took a field trip to the swine unit! ---
**Author:** ![Tapiotar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3be4f8/32.png) [@Tapiotar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapiotar)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2014, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-pigs-are-smelly/704469/22 "2014-11-14T14:11:20Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I’ve smelled pig farms and chicken farms. > > For my money, chickens are a LOT worse. Nah, disagree. I grew up on a chicken farm. The ammonia in chicken manure smells bad, true, but pig waste smells too much like human waste, and is way worse. Going by a big pig farm is like going into a human outhouse after a diarrhea epidemic. ---
**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2014, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-pigs-are-smelly/704469/23 "2014-11-14T15:45:44Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Anthropologist Marvin Harris, in his books (especially _Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches_ and _Good to Eat_) argues that if pigs aren’t kept in extreme circumstances they are actually very clean animals. Their problem is that they don’t sweat (the expression “Sweat like a pig” notwithstanding) and need to cool down with a mud wallow. And they prefer “clean” mud. If they can’t get clean mud, they’ll wallow in sludge. If they can’t get that, they’ll wallow in urine and feces. Understandable, if the alternative is death by heatstroke. Don’t overcrowd your pigs and give them what they need and they’ll be relatively clean and happy. Overcrowd them, as in a factory farm, and they’'ll stink. > > I’m sure chickens are more tolerable when they’re not packed in tight, too. Those chicken farms that made me gag were pretty densely populated. My experience with pigs agrees with all of this. My pigs had access to the pasture and the lower level of my barn. They would always poop in the far end of the barn, away from their sleeping stalls, and would make a new mud wallow every couple of weeks. I’ll throw in a another observational anecdote. I have seen no evidence for the supposed cleverness of pigs. When we first started raising pigs I threw a few bowling balls into the pasture and hung a heavy chain from a beam for them to “play” with, I was told this was important. They were never touched. In my experience, when encountering a new object, a pig will first try to eat it. If it proves inedible, they will try scratching against it. If the object satisfies neither of these requirements, it is ignored. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2014, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-pigs-are-smelly/704469/24 "2014-11-14T17:12:49Z")
> [@racer72](#): > > Minks? Oh my God do they stink. I forgot about minks. There’s a mink farm near here and when the workers come into the store, fresh off the farm, the smell is horrible. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2014, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-pigs-are-smelly/704469/25 "2014-11-14T22:33:18Z")
> [@racer72](#): > > Minks? Oh my God do they stink. Lived about a mile from a mink farm. When the wind blew the right direction it was unbearable to be outside. Then a neighbor decided to spread mink crap on his pasture. Besides the stink, the flies were terrible. The county health department made him remove as much of the mink guano as possible. He also learned a valuable lesson. The milk from his cows picked up some of the smell, for months he had to toss the milk. When we moved to the quickly developing 'burbs way back when, there was a recently abandoned mink farm quite near by. Still smelled from a distance. (Took quite a while for someone to develop it. I always wondered if buyers walking on it to check it out got a good whiff.) Anyway … the same guy that owned that place started a new farm much further out. Which just so happened to be near the area we picked berries in the summer. So it just kept on giving … ---
**Author:** ![seal\_cleaner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@seal\_cleaner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seal_cleaner)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2014, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-pigs-are-smelly/704469/26 "2014-11-15T01:30:51Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I’ve smelled pig farms and chicken farms. > > For my money, chickens are a LOT worse. And turkeys best them all. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2014, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-pigs-are-smelly/704469/27 "2014-11-15T03:31:38Z")
Basically, shit stinks. A lot of shit in a small area stinks really bad. Maybe composting or some sort of industrial digester could be an answer. ---
**Author:** ![Beelzebubba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Beelzebubba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beelzebubba)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2014, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-pigs-are-smelly/704469/28 "2014-11-15T06:46:38Z")
Pigs are vile, filthy creatures…disgusting! They will eat anything…anything! ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2014, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-pigs-are-smelly/704469/29 "2014-11-15T15:13:14Z")
> [@Beelzebubba](#): > > Pigs are vile, filthy creatures…disgusting! They will eat anything…anything! I suspect that this is in part due to our feeding them any garbage we have on hand. ---
**Author:** ![Beelzebubba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Beelzebubba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beelzebubba)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2014, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-pigs-are-smelly/704469/30 "2014-11-15T20:56:42Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > I suspect that this is in part due to our feeding them any garbage we have on hand. They will eat tumors off of other pigs, dead pigs, other dead animals, and if their young die, they eat them…and sometimes they will kill their offspring if they’re feeling a bit peckish! They’ll even consume dead human bodies…‘Criminal Minds’ did a pig farm episode several seasons back and it still freaks me out to think about it. All they found was 100+ pairs of shoes in the pig pens…everything else, even bones, were consumed by the swine! I’m with the Jews (and Muslims) on this one and I don’t eat pork or anything flavored with pork! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2014, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-pigs-are-smelly/704469/31 "2014-11-15T21:07:27Z")
> [@August\_West](#): > > Oh, and I agree on the chicken comments. > > I go in there once a year in a tyvek suit with a respirator, and that’s with only 5 hens! Her name is Snow. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-pigs-are-smelly/704469.md?page=1)