By Paul Salahuddin Armstrong

I’ve noticed some photos and short video clips doing the rounds on social media that depict what is presented as a “pig-human hybrid” baby. In many social media posts, it is claimed that a pig gave birth to this hybrid baby after a man had sex with the pig.

Natural hybrids between higher animals are rare. Where they do occur, e.g. between horses and donkeys, or between lions and tigers, these are between closely related species, usually in the same genus. In addition, these hybrids are more likely to happen in domesticated animals, or animals in captivity; they are much scarcer in the natural world.

Humans and pigs aren’t even in the same taxonomical order, let alone family or genus! Humans are primates and pigs are ungulates. From a biological perspective, it is quite impossible for a coupling of a pig and a human to bear any offspring.

The only hybrids or chimeras between pigs and humans are created by scientists in the laboratory. The chimeras are being developed through a technique that introduces human stem cells into them while in the embryo stage.

When perfected, the aim is to create animals that are still pigs, but would grow some organs that would be compatible for transplantation into humans. The idea is to grow these organs in pigs to increase the amount of available organs that can be transplanted into humans in order to save human lives.

https://www.nature.com/news/hybrid-zoo-introducing-pig-human-embryos-and-a-rat-mouse-1.21378

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/01/human-pig-hybrid-embryo-chimera-organs-health-science/

The “pig-human hybrid” baby that has gone viral on social media is the artistic creation of Laira Maganuco, an Italian artist who creates realistic looking sculptures using silicone rubber.

http://smhoaxslayer.com/did-pig-deliver-a-baby-with-mix-features-of-human-and-pig/

Before anyone believes any shocking animal-human hybrid images posted on the web or social media, they should first be sceptical. Use critical reasoning. Just because something is depicted in a photo or video doesn’t mean it is true. Today, there are many technologies that can be used to create very real looking images that aren’t real.

Consider Hollywood movies over the past decade or two, how realistic are many of the scenes in these movies, some of which are created almost entirely using CGI, others through a combination of CGI and more traditional special effects. Just because something in a photo or video looks miraculous, doesn’t mean it is a miracle of God or demonic magic! Most things have far more straightforward explanations.