A Wyoming county fair is bringing back pig wrestling after a six-year hiatus, though it’s adding a new rule: No men allowed.
The ban is meant to protect the swine after concerns about animal cruelty rippled through Teton County this fall and pleas for humane treatment of the animals surged into county commissioners’ email inboxes.
The commissioners struck a compromise by voting 3-1 last week to eliminate the adult men’s category of the game and require participants to complete a program about caring for animals. Mark Newcomb, Teton County commission chairman, said commissioners surmised that women and children would be less likely than men to harm the pigs. (The only woman commissioner was absent from the vote.)
Still, Newcomb said, it’s an imperfect solution.
“I think there are men and women, older than 18, and even folks who might be transitioning either way, who are plenty strong, plenty athletic,” he said.
County commissioners and residents during a meeting last week spent nearly 90 minutes debating whether the decades-long community tradition belongs in the modern fair. Proponents said the sport’s popularity — it consistently draws sell-out crowds, the county fair board manager said — is a key link to the county’s history, while detractors condemned it as a cruel practice.
Pig wrestling is a staple at some county fairs across the nation and a misdemeanor at others. The rules are simple: Four to five people hop in a muddy pit, sprinkled with bentonite to ensure maximum slickness, and try to place a free pig inside a padded barrel. There is no hitting, pulling or rough handling.
“And the rule is you have to get it in butt-first,” Newcomb said. “You can’t put it in headfirst — that’s illegal.”
The board for the Teton County fair, which began in 1956, paused the sport during the coronavirus pandemic and then the vendor that supplied the pigs sold the animals and retired, said Kristen Waters, Teton County’s public information manager. This fall, the board brought a new contract to county commissioners to resume the practice at the next fair in July.
The proposal prompted debate across the roughly 23,000-person county. In a poll this month, the Jackson Hole News & Guide asked readers: “Should Teton County Fair host a pig wrestling event?” About ⅓ of respondents replied “Yes, it’s good clean fun.” The other ⅔ said pig wrestling is animal cruelty.
“People were saying if it doesn’t physically harm the pigs, it does mentally harm the pig,” Newcomb said.
Lisa Robertson, who has lived in Teton County for about 30 years, opposes the event. The new rules, she said, “just lighten the possibility of injury to the pig.” She added that plenty of adult women weigh more than adult men.
“This decision was made by men,” she said with a laugh, adding that she and fellow anti-pig wrestling community members “were surprised … that our commissioners would still allow this. We applaud any changes to improve the outlook for pigs, but in the end, cruelty is cruelty.”
But Newcomb, who voted to reinstate the event and ban men, said most of the outcry about the practice’s return has dissipated. The real test, he said, will be the opening of the summer fair and its activities: “We’ll see if people have a reaction.”
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