EU Pig Toy Hoax Story
Reports recently circulated on the Internet and in some newspapers that British farmers would soon be required by the European Union to supply their pigs with toys or else face fines of up to 2,500 pounds. As reported by Reuters, for example, the EU directive supposedly required farmers to “put a football, metal chains or hay in their pigsties.”
Both British and EU officials deny the story, however, and report that nowhere in the EU directive is any mention made of footballs or any toys. The directive does require farmers to supply pigs with rooting materials such as straw, hay, wood, sawdust, compost or peat.
The misunderstanding seems to have started with the UK Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whose announcement of the new regulations related to pigs led some observers to believe that the directive required the use of toys. A spokesman for DEFRA was quoted in some news stories as saying,
While straw and hay would do, obviously the use of a football or a chain would also do. For many years now vets have been suggesting that you put a football or something to kick around into the stall with a horse if it is restless. Basically, the same is true for pigs. If you put in a football or you dangle a chain they could nose it around and play with it, it is helpful.
This interpretation of the EU directive seems to rest solely with DEFRA.
Sources:
Pig toy tale ‘anti-Europe rubbish’. CNN, January 29, 2003.
Pigs can go hog wild with new toys. Reuters, February 1, 2003.
Tags: Pigs