The Pig Who Sang to the Moon
- Jan 20
- 1 min read
Updated: Feb 20
By Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson • 2003
Masson (When Elephants Weep) turns his attention to the animals most people never think about as individuals. He profiles pigs, cows, chickens, sheep, and goats, drawing on ethological research and his own observations to argue that these animals have rich emotional lives: they form friendships, grieve losses, experience joy and fear and boredom. The book is a corrective to the industrial view of livestock as units of production.
Why it matters
Most people who love animals still eat them. The mental trick that makes this possible is refusing to think of farm animals as individuals with inner lives. Masson's book makes that trick harder to sustain. It's not graphic (there are no slaughterhouse descriptions) but it is devastating. Once you've read about a pig's capacity for play or a cow's bond with her calf, the cognitive dissonance gets a lot louder.
Worth knowing
Masson was a psychoanalyst before he became an animal writer, he even edited Sigmund Freud's complete letters. That background shows in his attention to emotional nuance. He's interested in what animals feel, not just what they do.
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