Researchers Gather Emotion Detection Tools To Read Pigs’ Feelings By Their Oinks

Photo 129219044 © Innaso4inska | Dreamstime.com

Pigs are intelligent creatures, and perhaps more people would understand that if they could decode their emotions.

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen, ETH Zurich, and the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment have consolidated data that assesses the emotions of pigs based on their calls. The hope with this project is for developers to one day create automated emotion recognition devices or apps for farmers to track the welfare of their animals.

Elodie Briefer, the lead researcher of the study, describes that positive welfare in animals shouldn’t just entail physical health. They need to lead more fulfilled lives too.

To match the emotions of pigs, the team collected 7,414 sounds from 411 pigs that were recorded during various situations, from happy ones to the most traumatizing events. They also observed pigs’ behaviors and heart rates, the Guardian reports.

Sounds captured from positive scenarios include the squeals of pigs who reconnected with their family members or when piglets suckled from their mothers. The negative ones document separations, attacks, and disturbing experiments of piglets being castrated without anesthesia or painkillers. 

The team gathered that vocalizations with shorter lengths and “minor fluctuations,” like some grunts, indicated positive feelings. Meanwhile, high-frequency calls, like screams or squeals, were some of the sounds made during uncomfortable events.

The researchers are confident that the data can help developers create algorithms that decode 92% of pig calls.

Critics, however, are skeptical of the intentions behind this project and how the data could eventually be used. Dr Marc Bekoff, professor emeritus of the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology division at the University of Colorado; and Dr Lori Marino, neuroscientist and director of the Kimmela Center for Animal Advocacy; argue that—even if we were to understand pigs better—the animals are going to be farmed in a confined facility, killed, and eaten anyway, Sentient Media reports.

Bekoff notes that while farmers may have good intentions for reading animals’ emotions, others might utilize the technology to justify cruel practices.

Detractors are concerned that calls of distress won’t be enough to drive fulfilling change for the lives of pigs, as hearing these vocalizations won’t change consumers’ minds about eating them.

[via Sentient Media and The Guardian, cover photo 129219044 © Innaso4inska | Dreamstime.com]