What do you do with a drunken pig?

Yes – that’s what I said – like the old song – What do you do with a drunken sailor? It is not so easy to deal with a drunken pig.  So where would you find a drunken pig?  It seems like some “smart alecs” in the boating community think it is funny to feed the swimming pigs of the Bahamas with alcohol.  I mean really!  It takes very little to entertain a small mind I guess.  I also wonder how things have not gone horribly wrong already with drunken pigs frolicking in the water with local tourists.

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Look at the size of that pig

The sad thing is that this favourite tourist attraction is threatened and word has it that there are very few surviving pigs.  There has been talk of poison but I did read as well that the pigs are regularly fed hot dogs from the boats.  Now that I find a bit hard to stomach.  I hope they are vegan sausages and not pork.

Shame – poor pig has no idea.  Maybe he had a few drinks first and didn’t care what he was eating.

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Apparently this is a chicken hot dog – does this make it better?

So between eating hot dogs (probably full of sodium and preservatives) and drinking alcohol these pigs do not have a very healthy lifestyle and now someone or something has apparently starting poisoning the pigs.  Several dropped dead recently and word has it that there are only 7 or 8 left on the island.

So how did the pigs get there to begin with?  It is said that a couple were left on the island to fatten up and then the owners never returned for them and so the two or three piggies became more and more piggies.

And why do they swim?  The answer probably lies in the fact that people in boats will feed them.  It is a strong motivation.  Why do you think all those stingrays swarm around people at Cayman Islands.  It’s not the smell of suntan lotion – believe me!

So now (drunk or not) the pigs are disappearing and the island of Exuma Bahamas will have to go back to selling itself based on the amazing beaches and crystal clear waters teeming with fish – not pigs.

 

 

By Lesley Keyter

Lesley Keyter is the face of travel in the fast growing city of Calgary. Every week since 1997 she has has featured live on the Morning News Global TV.

4 comments

  1. The story of the dead Exuma pigs infuriates and saddens me. Though we don’t yet know why they died, it brought to light (at least for me) some of the inexcusably ignorant things visitors do to these lovely creatures. And it’s not just Exuma. In Abaco, Bahamas, the swimming pigs of No Name Cay have faced similar treatment. Just the other day, visitors set loose their dog(s) on the beach to terrorize the pigs. It’s really a shame how little respect some tourists have for the places they visit.

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  2. This makes me so sad. We visited these pigs on our honeymoon and it was an unforgettable experience. We did find it strange that they were fed hot dogs but we were assured they were not pork. I hope they find out what happened to the poor pigs.

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  3. Very sad. Parks Canada used to do a very good job of explaining how harmful human interactions with wild or feral (or semi-feral?) animals can be, and after some years of neglect, they had to resume the education program because of aggression from the wolf-packs in Banff. (Pigs can be aggressive, too. They aren’t all sweeties like Babe or like these ones seem to be, but that’s beside the point.) Apart from the original problem of introducing a potentially invasive species to the islands, I wonder if the tourists who feed the pigs actually think they are helping because they just don’t know any better.

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