 The animal's bristles were used as thread for sewing leather and for making ropes.However, useful as the animals no doubt were, neighbours were constantly grumbling about the behaviour of their neighbour's grice, and the courts were empowered to confiscate particularly troublesome ones, and to impose "hefty fines" on their owners.In the 19th century, landowners discouraged the keeping of these swine (one agricultural writer commented, "it is voracious in the extreme, and excessively difficult to confine in pasture or to fatten; it is also destructive and mischievous, and therefore ought gradually to be extirpated").