![[#~image_alt_1~#]](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fd3klpa3rfwubzz.cloudfront.net%2Fmedia%2FAPI%20Uploads%2FFTF%2F7150552d9acbe0514334e56cd36188f1_a9a019f854.jpg&w=1920&q=75)
Claim A says a goat was jailed in 1457 for trampling a vineyard in Savigny. Claim B says a pig was imprisoned and tried for killing a baby in 1386. Claim B is true, and Claim A is completely made up.
In the small Normandy town of Falaise, medieval justice didn't discriminate by species. In 1386, a sow attacked and killed an infant, and local authorities responded exactly as they would for a human defendant: they locked the pig up in the town jail to await trial.
The case went to court with full legal formality. The pig was assigned representation, witnesses were heard, and the proceedings mirrored any other criminal trial of the era. Unsurprisingly, the sow was found guilty of murder.
The sentencing is where things get truly strange. The pig was dressed in human clothing, reportedly including a jacket and a pair of drawers, before being dragged to the public square. There, in front of a crowd of townspeople, the animal was executed just as a human murderer would have been.
This wasn't a one-off oddity, either. Animal trials happened across medieval Europe for centuries, with pigs, rats, and even insects occasionally hauled before judges. Pigs were especially common defendants since they roamed freely in villages and sometimes posed a genuine threat to unattended children.
No goat ever stood trial in Savigny for vineyard damage. Courts occasionally fined farmers over wandering livestock, but there's no record of an animal being formally imprisoned or tried for something as mundane as crop trampling — the real history books only talk about pigs facing murder charges, not grapevine grudges.
Think you could've guessed right? Share this with someone who swears they'd have known better.
