The pig is a dangerous animal. I want to illustrate this truth

With the story of an acquaintance whose promising youth

and mature achievement were infected by an unknown pig virus

leaving him an intellectual and moral wreck. I saw this, I was

his one-time friend, who tried by critical companionship

to save him from destruction, by plucking him from the grip

of this disease, but all without success. Here is the story.

Tom was a bright fellow who thought he was cut out for glory,

Who inheriting a country farm was persuadedthat vast riches

Were in pigs. After his visit to a piggery in England his sickness

Was evident in the building of an enormous pig shed on his farm

And the purchase of two thousand pigs. I could see, with some alarm,

That his mind was not right because there were simply too many pigs

For his shed, which might have accommodated half of them, big

As it was. He simply told his men to get them in or else. I knew

This was an act of appalling cruelty and told him so. He said “You

Must have mistaken me for someone who gives a fuck.” In the days

Afterwards I visited the shed and saw the results of his care:  crazed

Animals biting each other; broken legs and backs; urine and faeces

Everywhere; weaker pigs starving; and the continuous screeches

Of animals in pain. Occasionally he visited himself looking with approval

On the suffering, increased by his workers kicking or striking with wooden

Poles any creatures that got in their road. I thought that as they had infected

Him with their disease they deserved the treatment he gave them. More wretched

However, were the pregnant sows he bought to give him piglets for market. Confined

To farrowing crates, they were unable to stand or turn while their offspring dined

On their defenceless teats. Driven beyond fear a giant sow broke her cage

Trampling Tom who was in her way. One foot went through his chest, her rage

Unstoppable The Local Authority paid Compassion in World Farming to clean

Up the mess. Pigs are very dangerous animals and there may be no rescue

for those like Tom who catch Porcoid Encephalitis and lose human values.