FACTORY FARMING: Pigs


Sow in a Stall

Factory farming is about treating animals like commodities, dealing with them in bulk and ensuring swift throughput and a low-priced final product. Pork and bacon are such a taken-for-granted part of the UK diet that people seldom stop to wonder how this food gets to their tables.

There are two types of pigs that the farmer is interested in: breeders and meat producers. Each type of pig has its own problems.

BREEDERS

Conditions

The sows are there for one purpose only, to make piglets. Their lives are one continuous cycle of impregnation and birth with each sow having more than 20 piglets a year. After being impregnated, the sows are confined in small pens or metal gestation crates just 2 feet wide. At the end of their pregnancy they are transferred to farrowing crates to give birth. Here they are often tethered. They barely have room to move and many suffer from sores on their shoulders. No bedding is provided.

In the UK sow stalls and tethers have been illegal since the 1st January, 1999. However, in many other countries such practices are still legal. What is also important is that the pig is a bright, social animal. (Many have compared them in temperament and intelligence to dogs.)

Animal Welfare Issues include:

  1. Panic and stress in the pregnant sow which result in neurotic coping behaviours like such as bar biting, dog sitting and “mourning”.
  2. Sows are forced into a continuous cycle of gestation and lactation which means that if a sow is not impregnated within 7 days of her piglets weaning she is considered “non-active”.
  3. Sows experience heat loss and discomfort due to the deprived conditions.
  4. Obesity and crippling leg disorders caused by the unnatural floorings.
  5. Difficulties in moving may result in muscular wastage
  6. Most sows have cardio-vascular problems.
  7. Urinary infections are rampant.
  8. Over 80% of sows in major swine producing areas have been exposed to parvovirus.

MEAT PRODUCERS

Pigs bred for meat are known as fattened pigs. Weaning occurs at 3-4 weeks. By this up to 15% of them may already be dead, most of the others will have had their tails docked, usually without anesthesia, to prevent tail biting. Some will also have had their ears notched for identification. Surviving piglets will be crowded into pens with metal bars and concrete or slatted floors until they reach their slaughter weight at 5-6 months.

Human Welfare Issues include:

The copyright of the article FACTORY FARMING: Pigs in Green Home is owned by Linda Little. Permission to republish FACTORY FARMING: Pigs in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Go To Page: 1 2 3

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic