Pig: © iStock. com / Clint Scholz ∙ Dog: © iStock. com / Angelika Schwarz

Years ago, actor James Cromwell stopped eating pigs while filming the movie Babe.“ If you love a dog, you have to love a pig. It’ s the same”, he told a reporter.“ The pig has the same life cares – nurtures, avoids pain, suffers loss – all exactly the same.”

Pigs are actually smarter than dogs and can learn to sit, jump, fetch and respond to other commands. They are so smart that they can learn to play video games, even performing better at them than some primates. But that doesn’ t stop factory farmers from confining mother pigs for most of their lives to cramped“ gestation” crates so small that they can’ t even turn around or take a single step in any direction. Piglets are castrated and have their tails and parts of their teeth chopped off without being given any painkillers whatsoever. Can you imagine doing that to a dog? You’ d be slapped with cruelty-to-animals charges.

Studies have shown that fish are fast learners and form complex relationships. Fish“ talk” to one another in low frequencies that are inaudible to the human ear. They can count, tell time and“ garden”( eg, damselfish tend to and harvest algae gardens). Some fish even use tools. The blackspot tuskfish, for example, has been photographed smashing a clam on a rock until the clam cracks open. And contrary to industry propaganda, lobsters and crabs do feel pain – and studies have clearly shown that they are able to recall an unpleasant experience and take action to avoid repeating it.

Yet PETA’ s affiliate documented live lobsters and crabs who were being torn limb from limb at a US slaughterhouse, and billions of fish are vacuumed up by huge fishing trawlers, often suffocating to death if they aren’ t killed first by decompression. In addition to fish, millions of birds, turtles and marine mammals are killed every year“ by mistake” in enormous fishing nets.

© Rudchenko / Dreamstime. com

Pigs aren’ t the only animal Einsteins out there. Cows can learn how to push a lever to operate a drinking fountain when they’ re thirsty or to press a button with their heads to release grain when they’ re hungry. Researchers at the University of Cambridge found that when cows figured out how to open a gate to obtain food, they got so excited that some even jumped in the air. But cows on factory farms have nothing to celebrate. They are often confined by the thousands to filthy sheds that prohibit their natural social structure, causing them tremendous stress and frustration, just as you or I would feel living in such miserable, depressing conditions.

Calves on dairy farms are torn away from their loving mothers within hours of birth so that humans can drink the milk that nature intended for them. The sounds of distraught mother cows crying out for their calves, who have just been dragged away, are regularly heard coming from dairy farms.

20 Visit PETA. org. uk for more information.

© Shchipkova Elena / Dreamstime. com

© Susan Ocean / United Poultry Concerns

Chickens are so smart that within hours of hatching, they’ re able to perform mental feats that would baffle a human child. Newborn chicks can count to five, and by the time they’ re 2 weeks old, they can navigate using the sun, which requires mathematical calculations. Very young chicks are able to understand that objects hidden from view still exist, a concept that human babies don’ t grasp until they are a year old.“ As a trick at conferences, I sometimes list [ chickens’] attributes, without mentioning chickens, and people think I’ m talking about monkeys”, says animal behaviourist Dr Chris Evans of Australia’ s Macquarie University.

Naturalist Joe Hutto, star of the PBS documentary My Life as a Turkey, raised a flock of turkeys from birth and learned how curious, alert, affectionate and attentive they are. Turkeys possess“ an extraordinary intelligence characterised by true problem solving reason, and a consciousness that was undeniable, at all times conspicuous, and for me, humbling”, says Hutto. He also noted that they had an extensive vocabulary, with specific vocalisations for individual animals – he identified more than 30 specific calls. One turkey, named Sweet Pea, used to love to climb into

Hutto’ s lap and snuggle like a contented puppy.

And that’ s not all...