Well, if the pig “is” actually a desk, then perhaps it would only look like it’s breathing. It would be a magically animated simulation of a pig crafted from the matter of the desk. Even if it’s sucking air in and exhaling it back out, it wouldn’t be actually metabolizing oxygen, at least not any more than its “actual” desk-self does. Since Transfiguration is based on Platonic metaphysics, the desk would be a pig “in substance” but still a desk “in essence” (which is why it turns back to a desk when the spell wears off—its true Form remains the same).
Also, the fact that (IIRC) it remains still, quiet, and non-disruptive instead of acting like an un-trained farm animal suddenly finding itself in a room full of humans would imply that it’s a magically-animated pseudo-pig, more like a really awesome claymation than a real biological creature. Its pig attributes are only surface appearances, rather than its true nature (in Platonic terms), so it doesn’t come loaded with a full array of animal instincts, an empty stomach and GI tract (unless McG transfigured some of the desk into partly-digested pig fodder, other parts of the desk into symbiotic GI tract bacteria, etc.).
Since McG is stunned by the idea of Transfiguration on a level below grossly-perceivable Form, I’m guessing that if someone cut up the pig it would turn out to be minimally simple on the inside—no internal organs, differentiated tissues, etc. beyond what is necessary to make it look and appear to function like a pig from the outside. This would also be consistent with her “Don’t Transfigure anything into something that might be eaten!” rule, since a Transfigured “pig” would not look like fresh pork if it were butchered.
OTOH, Harry seems to have bypassed the Platonic aspect by Transfiguring on the sub-quantum level, so if he were able to do the same with a desk-to-pig (necessarily including the microbiology, molecular biology, metabolic sequences, etc.), he might be able to transfigure a Desk-Pig of Doom whose presence would subtly poison a nearby victim with Transfigured respiration products. But then, concretely visualizing a living creature on the level of its constituent quarks should be pretty much impossible unless he can magically give himself vastly superhuman mental-modeling capacity.
This model isn’t consistent with the specific reasons McGonagall gives for the prohibitions she does specify. She talks about liquids evaporating, recolored hair falling out, inanimate objects undergoing tiny internal changes that affect the original form.
Even if McGonagall knew how to safely do what she did, she shouldn’t have used that example in a safety lecture. A student might try Transfiguring something into an animal, and might include the fact that animals breathe in their visualization of the target form.
Well, if the pig “is” actually a desk, then perhaps it would only look like it’s breathing. It would be a magically animated simulation of a pig crafted from the matter of the desk. Even if it’s sucking air in and exhaling it back out, it wouldn’t be actually metabolizing oxygen, at least not any more than its “actual” desk-self does. Since Transfiguration is based on Platonic metaphysics, the desk would be a pig “in substance” but still a desk “in essence” (which is why it turns back to a desk when the spell wears off—its true Form remains the same).
Also, the fact that (IIRC) it remains still, quiet, and non-disruptive instead of acting like an un-trained farm animal suddenly finding itself in a room full of humans would imply that it’s a magically-animated pseudo-pig, more like a really awesome claymation than a real biological creature. Its pig attributes are only surface appearances, rather than its true nature (in Platonic terms), so it doesn’t come loaded with a full array of animal instincts, an empty stomach and GI tract (unless McG transfigured some of the desk into partly-digested pig fodder, other parts of the desk into symbiotic GI tract bacteria, etc.).
Since McG is stunned by the idea of Transfiguration on a level below grossly-perceivable Form, I’m guessing that if someone cut up the pig it would turn out to be minimally simple on the inside—no internal organs, differentiated tissues, etc. beyond what is necessary to make it look and appear to function like a pig from the outside. This would also be consistent with her “Don’t Transfigure anything into something that might be eaten!” rule, since a Transfigured “pig” would not look like fresh pork if it were butchered.
OTOH, Harry seems to have bypassed the Platonic aspect by Transfiguring on the sub-quantum level, so if he were able to do the same with a desk-to-pig (necessarily including the microbiology, molecular biology, metabolic sequences, etc.), he might be able to transfigure a Desk-Pig of Doom whose presence would subtly poison a nearby victim with Transfigured respiration products. But then, concretely visualizing a living creature on the level of its constituent quarks should be pretty much impossible unless he can magically give himself vastly superhuman mental-modeling capacity.
This model isn’t consistent with the specific reasons McGonagall gives for the prohibitions she does specify. She talks about liquids evaporating, recolored hair falling out, inanimate objects undergoing tiny internal changes that affect the original form.
Even if McGonagall knew how to safely do what she did, she shouldn’t have used that example in a safety lecture. A student might try Transfiguring something into an animal, and might include the fact that animals breathe in their visualization of the target form.