Talk:Pigsticking

Could please somebody correct the reference to Hungary on this page. Pig-sticking aka hog-hunting is or used to be a sport of maharajahs, it is obviously not practiced in present-day Hungary, there are no three Hungarians in one million who know the meaning of this English word, there is no Hungarian word for it. The quotation is actually a bad translation, I have checked the Hungarian version of the homepage. The author of the given homepage wanted to write pigslaughter or pig-killing (the event of butchering a pig at a farm for consuming the meat and also other parts of the animal - which prior to new, animal-rights-ridden EU-regulations used to be a feast in rural Hungary and other parts of Europe). The whole misunderstanding may be due to the fact that Országh László's Hungarian-English Dictionary (Budapest, 1985) says: "disznóölés - pigkilling or pigsticking). This is of course false, but the author has been dead for 30 years and the dictionary was printed in half a million copies :)

This is pigslaughter: http://www.elelmezesvezetok.hu/szamok/04/01/141.jpg

The article is in Hugarian, but the illustrating photos speak for themselves: http://www.elelmezesvezetok.hu/szamok/04/01/14.htm

Apcka 19:34, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

Removed per above
I inserted this material originally. I stand corrected per the comment above and am removing it. Actually this may be an ambiguity in English. I know of an English colloquialism, "to squeal like a stuck pig," so perhaps "pig-sticking" in English can refer both to an inhumane method of slaughtering a domestic pig and to a blood sport. Dpbsmith (talk) 01:42, 6 September 2006 (UTC)


 * As of 2004 pig-sticking is still practiced in Hungary, using domestic pigs rather than wild boars. According to the website for one farm that accommodates guests, guest "can participate in the farm's everyday life: mushroom production, animal-care... Guests arriving on horseback can get their horses put in stables and given fodder to. They can also participate at a pigsticking. If needed we process the animal and the delicious parts can be taken home."


 * Hungarian farm offering recreational pigsticking

Thank you very much, Dpbsmith! 84.0.243.75 05:07, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Bloodsport?
To place pigsticking in the same genre as cock and dogfighting is deplorable. Spearing boar is the traditional and most humane way to kill them. It is done on foot, or sometimes from horseback, as chasing the boar might tire some hunters, also being mounted can protect the hunter. It is still a dangerous sport, as boar sport large, sharp tusks and have been known to kill dogs, and rarely, humans. Knives are often used to kill boar, but the spear, once again, adds protection by keeping the animal at a distance. The spear and knife has been most popular, because projectile weapons can easily hit one of the dogs, who prance excitedly around the animal. Often bullets will richochet off the ribcage or "shield" (the over-sized shoulder blade) into non-vital areas, hurting the animal but allowing him to escape, maimed. A blade is more humane because it easily penetrates the ribcage and punctures the vitals without fail. It is also a more honorable hunt, where the (formidable) prey has a chance to inflict damage upon the hunter.

If two wild boar were made to fight each other in an arena, THAT would be a bloodsport.

And "squealing like a stuck pig" does not refer to pigsticking. It refers to the panic and wild screaming a domestic hog does when he is rendered immobile by trying to squeeze through a fence or under a fallen log he cannot quite fit through, or when they otherwise get stuck. Wild boars (the males) are not known to squeal, only grunt, even when mortally wounded.