"You are 6 times more likely to be killed by a pig than by a shark" | Hacker News Reader

"You are 6 times more likely to be killed by a pig than by a shark"

shark.ch

22 pointscwan32 comments

Maybe for the population in general. But for example, I surf and see sharks all the time. But I don't think I've ever seen a pig in real life that wasn't in an enclosed pen.

For a cool list of local shark sightings, read here:

http://www.sharkresearchworldwide.org/pacific_coast_shark_ne...

That's the thing with pigs - you don't see them until it's too late.

Yeah; it'd be great if they'd post likelihood ratios: For example, if I live in Florida, a shark attack hotspot, and like to go swimming at night--shark feeding time--what are my chances now?

My takeaway from the article is that I should spend no time thinking about shark attacks since it's only a distraction from the much larger danger of drowning,

The pig statistic is mere distraction too.

Well, .00000003% or so of the US population gets eaten by sharks every year, so there must be some circumstances under which it becomes a significant risk.

The question is whether those circumstances are identifiable enough to be worth the cognitive load of avoiding: If 90% of shark attacks happened to people swimming at night in Florida, and only .00000006% of the US population actually swims at night in Florida, it might be an activity worth avoiding.

http://xkcd.com/795/

ah conditional probability. I wonder how many thousands of years of development we as a society have lost from a lack of understanding of this concept.

If there is a piece of maths that should be drilled into every student more than any other, its at least a vague understanding of the difference between joint and conditional probability. and the underlying knowledge the ability to make this distinction implies. Much more likely to be useful to a randomly selected daily life than trig, calculus or geometry.

Maybe the fear of sharks prevents people from getting themselves into situations where they would be killed by one. My takeaway is that I need to start cultivating a healthy fear of pigs.

Don't worry, if you see pigs in the wild the fear will come naturally.

I was out in the Arizona desert with a friend, and he was walking a few dozen feet ahead and he scared some javelinas out of the underbrush. They took off running past me, and it was a little unnerving. Panicked, not-so-bright little creatures, who knows what they might do?

Another friend of mine told me of a night he was camping in Georgia, and a wild boar came sniffing around his tent. Said it was the worst smelling thing he'd ever been around, and was a bit scared not knowing what it might do if he startled it.

I think these should take into account the number of people on land and the time they spend on land vs that of water when comparing such statistics.

I was going to say the exact same thing. I think not only what you mentioned but also how much time they spend with the animals should be considered. I'm sure those killed by pigs are farmers that spend a lot of time with pigs. The attacks over the time around humans ratio should be looked at.

I think these should take into account the number man hours of people on pig farms vs. that of water when comparing such statistics.

My guess is if you spend 1 hour swimming in the ocean and 1 hour working on a pig farm you are more likely to be eaten by a pig.

Of all animals, I've been attacked by swans the most. And you almost never see them. They're just really assholes.

The submission title is misleading and inexact. It's not a quote from the article. The article actually says

"Alone in the USA and Canada approximately 40 people are killed each year by pigs – six times more than by sharks worldwide."

I'm pretty confident this is false. It's been repeated a lot in articles (including the usually solid Bruce Schneier), but in an admittedly brief search, I can find no evidence to back it up.

Iowa is one of the largest pork producing states, and I can't find any mention of the deaths by pigs in the years I paged through: http://www.public-health.uiowa.edu/face/Summaries/index.html

New Mexico, a mostly rural state with a significant number of animal caused fatalities, does not seem to attribute any deaths to pigs out of the 63 deaths (including 2 by sheep) reported here: http://www.nmwild.org/wp-content/uploads/animalrelated.pdf

I can't find recent data from the CDC, but this report has fairly complete coverage from 1991-2001. Snakes are at 5 per year for the US, spiders 6, bees and wasps at 50, but pigs are not mentioned specifically anywhere in the report: http://www.scark.org/docs/Animal%20Related%20Fatalities.pdf

My best guess is that this number was either intended as sample copy and left in a final report, falsely conflates "other specified animal" with pigs, is a worldwide rather than US/Canada specific number, or attempts to included deaths from "swine flu" as death due to a pig. Please don't repeat this trope unless you have better evidence that it is indeed true.

To be fair - I would expect a swineherd to know how to deal with pigs. They are, after all, experts.

and almost no swine are managed by hand in commercial operations. Its mostly hands-free, motivated by the desire to avoid introducing viruses to the young immune-impaired stock.

In all likelihood, the stats are referring to wild boars and feral pigs, which can be extremely aggressive and have been know to attack and gore humans from time to time.

Here's a normal pig that attacked a number of people: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-410319/Nurse-savaged...

Yes, from time to time. But I'd bet you any sum of money that there are less than 40 such fatal attacks per year in the US and Canada. And I say this as someone who hunts wild boars, and currently has 2 wild boar hams soaking in brine in preparation for a Christmas dinner.

And what do you mean "in all likelihood"? Do you mean that you have some evidence that there are more wild boar attacks per year in the US and Canada than there are shark attacks worldwide? Or do you mean that the concept is kind of cool despite being entirely without evidence?

I used to work with the Cape Eleuthera Institute (http://ceibahamas.org) -- they are doing world class shark research to raise awareness about how important and endangered sharks are.

"You are much more likely to be killed by bees, dogs, bats, and certainly in Hong Kong, automobiles." http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2010/0204/The-glo...

Not nearly as silly as it sounds. Feral hogs in the south can top out at 400-800 pounds (though this is by no means the average) and are quite clever, and sometimes aggressive. I'm not sure if there have been confirmed fatal attacks on humans, but they do carry brucellosis.

If you never go swimming, or to the sea (or above), you have a 0% chance of being killed by a shark.

If you don't work with pigs (a pigfarm ?) or visit any farms, you probably have a 0% chance of getting killed by pigs as well (unless you count over-eating ;-) ..

Unless you live somewhere - like europe - where there are vicious wild boar in the forests.

i live in vienna, i see boars regularly in the viennese forest. you just walk past them, stay calm, no problem. if there are piglets you stop and observe, never get between the piglets and their mother.

i can say with certainty that i would react quite differently if i saw a shark while swimming in the sea. but of course, pissing myself in the sea is no big embarrassment.

In the forest of dean the boars have become a pest. They rip up tents and steal food.

In Oregon, the local department of fish and wildlife has declared "feral pigs" a nuisance, meaning they can be hunted as much as wanted. They rip of farms, destroy fences etc. Every once in a while, they eviscerate someone, which keeps it interesting :)

Doesn't the Constitution give you the right to arm pigs - or is it only bears?

Razor tusks and all, not sure if the pigs need to be armed! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogzilla

I've seen a shark while swimming in the ocean before. No big deal. I believe it was a reef shark (in hawaii). Under 6 feet (2 meters) long, a decent distance away, never showed the slightest bit of interest in me (or the other people I was swimming with), and I left it alone. I was more worried about staying away from the pufferfish.

We just don't look like food to most sharks. If visibility is good and there isn't the smell of food in the water, there's usually nothing to worry about.

Two words: Shark flu

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