Our Centennial City... Lakewood's Antiques And Oddities... The Pig Snout Ringer Tool

Photo by Gary Rice

During the hardscrabble 1930's, many families raised three pigs annually to be used for food at various times of the year, including the Christmas and New Year's hams. To ensure the pigs did not escape from their pen by rooting out under the wire, it was necessary to ring their noses, so as to discourage the rooting-out process.
The two-person job went like this: one person held the pig still by straddling it, while the other person had a circular plier tool that held a clamping snout ring to be carefully placed between the pig's nostrils and squeezed shut while looking the pig right in the face. Obviously, the pig often objected to this indignity with squeals and wiggles galore. Often, the pig and the humans ended up in the mud, or worse.

Not long ago, I ran across these old snout-ringer pliers. Dad and I have had all kinds of fun trying to figure out how this tool might be useful these days...