Heartbreaking Video of Pig Grieving the Death of His Friend Is a Reminder That Animals Have Feelings Too

Illustration - Shutterstock

As an 8-month-old piglet, Spot was rescued from a family who had purchased him as a novelty pet but were not able to keep him. Spot met fellow piglet Sientje after arriving at his new home, and the pair became inseparable.

It was animal lover Rachel Vos, of Aubel, Belgium, who adopted Spot back in 2005, and she noticed the special bond between her two pigs immediately. Spot and Sientje lived happily together for 12 years.

Then, tragedy struck. In October 2017, Sientje passed away after a battle with severe osteoarthritis. Spot was left devastated.

After her death, Vos wrapped Sientje in blankets and scattered flowers around her body. Spot wouldn’t leave her side. “At first he didn’t understand what was happening,” Vos told The Dodo. “I could not stop crying. They were always together.

“When she was no longer there, it took a while before he was the old cheerful Spot again,” Vos continued. “It was difficult for him.” Before moving on, however, Spot was given time to grieve, and moving footage of the pig’s interaction with his dear friend after her passing reveals that animals have feelings, too.

After the heartbreaking video was posted online, it went viral.

In footage shared on YouTube, Spot stands over Sientje’s resting body, wrapped in a blanket with flowers solemnly scattered about. Spot mournfully rests his head upon his fallen friend and then gently sniffs her lifeless face.

Vos can be heard crying in the background as she films the heartbreaking interaction.

“And people say animals don’t have souls or feelings,” wrote one YouTube viewer; “well, they’re all wrong.”

“It’s really sad and touching to see [a] pig mourn another friend,” wrote another. “[T]hat touched me so much.”

Vos’s video is a profound example of how emotionally sensitive simple farm animals can be. Pigs are known to thrive on social interactions and form deep, lasting bonds with other creatures and their human caretakers.

Journalist Barry Estabrook, speaking to NPR in 2015, explained how his own research had enlightened him to the depths of pigs’ intelligence and emotional sensitivity. “I set out on the premise that if you’re going to eat an animal, maybe you owed it to yourself to find out as much as you could about the way the animal thought, its cognitive abilities,” Estabrook explained.

Estabrook is the author of “Pig Tales: An Omnivore’s Quest for Sustainable Meat,” and his extensive research led him to the conclusion that pigs are “intelligent, inquisitive, emotional creatures” that deserve nothing short of the very best treatment and respect.

For a lucky few pigs, their lives are able to be lived to the fullest as the treasured companions of animal-loving humans while many others become food. Spot and Sientje are two examples of the former.

On Nov. 3, 2017, Vos took to Facebook to post a sweet selfie of herself and her beloved pig alongside a note written as if from the viewpoint of Spot’s: “Who can make me happy again with a new life partner?” the note began. “I, Spot, am still too lonely after the death of my great love, Sien.”

“Given my respectable age of 12 years,” the note continued, “I am looking for an older, quiet, and social lady who wants to share my king-sized bed full of first-class bedding.

“I myself am a Göttinger mini-pig,” Spot’s sweet profile went on, “and [I would like to] fall in love with a female about the same size as me. I hope someone is waiting for me.”

Vos eventually decided not to introduce her elderly pig to a new companion; the Vos family’s dogs and cats, she said, provided ample companionship. “He’s very old and stiff,” Vos explained to The Dodo, “so we don’t want to add any extra stress.

“The cats will go right into the stable and sleep in the straw with him,” she said.