Early New Yorkers tossed garbage into the street or into one of the rivers. The city stunk. In the absence of organized waste disposal, pigs played an important role in reducing (and reusing and recycling) trash in the city.

Brought to America by European colonists, pigs were commonplace and an important source of food. Without room to house them, hogs were largely left to roam the city foraging for food scraps, which not only kept them alive but also removed waste from the streets. By some estimates, upwards of 20,000 pigs free-ranged on the streets of Manhattan in the early 1820s.