Films / Movies / Films & Videos / Films About Diet and Food / Pigs & Pork Industry

The Last Pig

by Jennie Richards · Published February 26, 2021 · Updated February 26, 2021

“I no longer want to peddle in death.” ~ Bob Comis
“I would give up every single moment with the pigs, just to bring one of them back.” ~ Bob Comis

The Last Pig chronicles a small-scale pig farmer’s life, raising pigs for the past 10 years, as he comes to terms with his compassion, values, morality and life choices. The film follows upstate New York farmer Bob Comis, who cares deeply and profoundly for his pigs, providing them the best of care daily—fresh water to bath in, fresh straw to sleep on, lots of mud for digging and rolling in, and fresh pastures to graze on. The film is a beautiful tribute to Comis’s clear and present love and devotion to his pigs, and his natural and deep connection with his animals. But Comis’ increasingly finds he can no longer “throw down his emotional glass door” that dulls his feelings, in order to take his pigs to the slaughterhouse. The film reveals Comis’s growing daily struggle and despair at having to kill his animals that he feels is morally wrong. He grapples with the conflict of seeing his pigs as sentient, intelligent, complex and “precious” beings entitled to live life, and yet having to make the decision to end their lives, for food. He says, “After 10 years of looking into thousands of pig eyes, I have come to understand that they are never vacant. There is always somebody looking back at me.” He is haunted by those eyes, and finally determines that giving up pig farming is the right thing to do.

The Last Pig addresses Comis’s last year managing his pig farm and his growing conflict and inner struggle with a life spent “peddling in death,” and his mounting courage to stop – and never betray his pigs again by completely changing his life. In intimate detail, the film captures the farmer’s personal upheaval as he questions his own morality and the value of life. Through the story’s simple, poignant intimacy, the farmer’s moral quandary quietly becomes our own.

Film Premier – 2017

Film Length – 55 minutes

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For more information, visit the website www.thelastpig.com

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Quotes from the Film

“They follow me, curious, interested, and irresistibly gregarious, they don’t know that this communion is a lie.”

“I really like being around these incredible animals. They are absolutely fascinating. They are precious. So precious. They are absolutely sacred.”

“I try to give them the best life they could have, for the short time they are here.”

“These are the special needs pigs, each has some sort of problem, most are genetic, couple have bad legs, so I separated them out from the group. Most farmers would say it doesn’t make financial sense to feed them, but I couldn’t do that to them.”

“I wanted to offer people an alternative to factory farm meat.”

“When I started, I knew nothing about pigs. After 10 years, I feel I am starting to know what I’m am doing a bit.”

“Pigs are unconditionally unforgiving—no matter what abuses they have suffered, no matter the lack of respect, or dignity they have been given. Given ample space and time, pigs will always welcome you back into the herd.”

“Pigs are intensely social, and extremely entertaining.”

“When pigs sleep, they sleep touching another pig, almost always.”

“When they are together, the social order is intact.”

“Over the last 10 years, I have taken 2,000 pigs to the slaughterhouse. Which is not many pigs. On factory farms, 2,000 pigs go every day. At the industrial slaughterhouses, they fly down the line at 1,000 pigs an hour.”

“This doesn’t look good. She’s in pain, it’s hard to make that decision.”

“Death on a livestock farm is all the time, and all around.”

“When I first got pigs, I was an emotional train wreck. I was in and out of depression, and had a lot of anxiety. When I experienced acute depression, my relationships with the pigs helped to heal me, and helped me to get better. I saw that the pigs had the same response to emotional anxiety and fear as I did.”

“After 10 years of looking into thousands of pig eyes, I have come to understand that they are never vacant. There is always somebody looking back at me.”

“Pigs are incredibly complex beings—they are not just “animals.” They are beings in the most profound sense of that word.”

“There are two ways I look at pigs, the first I prefer. Six days out of seven, I look at pigs from how from the perspective of care—is it healthy, is it doing what it wants to be doing? But one day out of seven, I look at pigs from utility, that is slaughterhouse day. If they are market weight, I take them to the slaughterhouse.”

“For 10 years, I have had to throw down what I call my “emotional glass doors” when I take pigs to the slaughterhouse. Those emotional glass doors prevent me from feeling the emotions that are raging to get out.”

“We grow up not eating dogs, or horses. Nowhere in our experience is there any deliberation is it ok to eat the pig? Is it ok to eat the dog? It no longer makes sense to me to eat the pig and not the dog. So, I’ve decided I’m not going to eat either.”

“There have been times I have extremely proud of what I have been doing, but lately, going to the slaughterhouse is more than I can bear.”

“I no longer want to peddle in death.”

“This is the last group of pigs that will ever be on the farm. I would prefer would not have them slaughtered. The sanctuaries are bursting at the seams, and to find homes for 200 pigs would be basically impossible. And there is no guarantee that another farmer would treat them to same way as I do.”

“The number of pigs has dwindled so much; I’m beginning to see individual pigs again.”

“They are so emotionally complex; they have a penetrating intelligence. It shows in a lot of different ways.”

“Even as I am attempting to transition to vegetable farming, I continue to kill pigs. And now, there is an emptiness.”

“I am haunted by the ghost of those happy pigs.”

“I found sanctuary for eight pigs, and now I am making decisions that are very arbitrary, I am deciding who is going to the sanctuary — and who dies. These eight pigs have 10 to 15 years ahead of them of life.”

“Tomorrow is my last day as a pig farmer.”

“No matter where I end up, giving up pig farming was the right thing to do.”

“The sanctuaries are really the ambassadors to the invisible farm animals, the millions that we don’t see.”

“I would give up every single moment with the pigs, just to bring one of them back.”