[morsch]

> Show me some evidence that pigs are "way smarter" than dogs.

A paper recently made the rounds regarding pigs: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8sx4s79c

For example: "Additionally, pigs can use pointing by humans (under certain circumstances) to lead them to a food reward (Nawrothet al., 2013b)."

But from a cursory glance, it seems that pigs are not "way smarter" than dogs, however they may be "about as smart" as dogs, which is surprising in and of itself.

[LowDog]

I never doubted that pigs are pretty much on par with dogs, but the original poster claimed that pigs are "way smarter," and there isn't any conclusive evidence to support this. I went through that paper and as you mentioned, it just points to the fact that all evidence suggests that pigs are fairly comparable to dogs in intelligence.

One key point about the paper is that we still have an incredibly long way to go in the research of animal intelligence, especially with regards to animals apart from chimps and cetaceans. Even though dogs are so tightly ingrained in human lives, there is still so much that we have yet to understand about their intelligence, even more so with pigs and other animals.

In any case, I think it's silly to prioritize one life over another solely based on intelligence. I consider dogs to be family so eating one would essentially be cannibalism in my book, but I also really value animal lives in general and I would never eat a pig either.

[JoeAltmaier]

Had a pet pig; had a pet dog; pig was way smarter.