The American writer Ellis Parker's most famous short story is titled Pigs is Pigs, written in

1905, reprinted all over the place, turned into a short film on several occasions, once in a form

that was nominated for an Academy Award. It's a big story, but it's also a funny little story about a guy named Mike Flannery,

a shipping agent who is trying to overcharge a man for shipping guinea pigs.

Mike's logic is that because they are named pigs, and because his employee manual tells him to

charge the higher rate when in doubt,

he is trying to charge the livestock rate, 30 cents a pig, rather than the pet rate, which would be 25 cents an animal.

So that's the comedic premise of the story, and then the comedy escalates as in the background of this multi-day negotiation stalemate, the guinea pigs reproduce until there are hundreds of guinea pigs overwhelming the shipping office.

Now, I don't know if the story was intended as anything deeper than just a little

comedy, but I think its popularity results, in part, from its mocking the arbitrariness of our

categories for animals. And today we're going to talk about a species who, simply in their existence, makes the same mockery.

The guinea pig.

Cavia Porcellus.

I'm Mackin.

This is species.

Welcome to the show.

Quick announcement for English listeners, especially those with families.

On the 26th and 27th of October, I will be doing three live in-person events with the Moon Lane

bookstores to promote my children's book, Animal Sidekicks. The first two are in London at

Tales on Moon Lane at 10.30 a.m. and at 2 p.m. at the other Moon Lane bookstore in Catford.

And the third event is on the 27th at Tales on Moon Lane Ramsgate.

I'm going to teach you guys about symbiosis,

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