Illinois farmers put rare pig back on the dinner table to save it from extinction

Jeannette Beranger of the Livestock Conservancy says the mulefoot’s “rough and tumble” nature made it particularly attractive to farmers in the Midwest.

“A lot of the time, American mulefoot hogs were managed on river islands,” Beranger said. “They’d forage all summer long, then when it came to butchering time in the fall, people would just go out to the islands and take what they needed.”

The mulefoot hog started falling out of fashion after World War II, with the rise of commercial agriculture operations that favored a few fast-growing breeds suited to confinement.