Emergency exit signs... for pigs

IF FIRE engulfs a piggery in Monto, its residents can rest easy. That fluorescent exit sign above the doors will save their bacon.

IF FIRE engulfs a piggery in Monto, its residents can rest easy. That fluorescent exit sign above the doors will save their bacon.

In one of the most ridiculous rules stifling small business in Queensland, piggery operators are required to install illuminated exit signs inside pens occupied solely by pigs.

Regulations also demand an escape door for pigs to use in case of fires, but which farmers fear the animals can use any time.

"A concrete block shed with steel roof trusses and corrugated iron roof, built to hold 60 pigs in four pens, had to have a fire hose, an illuminated "EXIT" sign above each of the two doors and an evacuation procedure displayed in a prominent position," former pig farmer Darryl Stewart told an industry survey.

"The biggest difficulties were teaching the pigs to read the signs and procedures, conducting fire drills so the building could be evacuated in orderly fashion and training the four most intelligent pigs as fire fighters. And it had to be done all over again every three months because that is when a new batch replaced the old batch. Oh, and rounding them up from anywhere within a 5km radius after every fire drill was not much fun either."

Read more on the Courier Mail

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Originally published as Emergency exit signs... for pigs