worked on a farm growing up, orchards, bakery farm store, animals but they were more of a 'petting zoo' (but no one could actually reach them). nonetheless, when the sheep, goats and pigs 'came of age'...they went to a different farm...
in spring we had to round up the babies, for the children to oogle. rounding up a couple dozen lambs, kids and piglets running free in a half-acre enclosure was a hootanany in itself, if only someone was sitting on the fence lickin' a banjo while we were at it!
anyway after the youngin's it was time to round up the grown-ups for their final journey. there was only one pig slated to go, a 400lb sow we called 'Wilbur" (none of us farm hands knew she was a sow until that day). Wilbur the sow was not at all interested in compliance. one by one more people showed up to join in. even the guys from the shop came up, including Thomas, a young and rather slowish fellow.
when there were maybe 15 of us, we managed to hem her in and corner her. we closed the semicircle and began to close in.
I know pigs are intelligent animals, and I even personally feel that all large mammals gain a sense of sentience if they live long enough. She knew exactly what was going on. she looked at each one of us in turn, right in the eyes, going back and forth until she literally did a double take, and zeroed in on poor Thomas. he saw it, too. he was already pale and pasty but i swear he got paler and pastier, and literally started shaking and backing up.. she was probably moving at least 40mph when she hit him. i'll never forget how far in the air he flew and how long he hung there, body parallel to the ground, arms and legs akimbo..then SLAM back to the ground.. he lived. but i'll bet he never ate bacon again!
moral of the story: large animals=terrifyingly powerful. even herbivores!
