Gestation and Farrowing Crates

Most breeding sows spend their entire adult lives confined to stalls so small that they are unable to perform the most basic functions. During their pregnancies, which last approximately four months, sows are placed in gestation stalls that are just barely the size of their bodies and are so narrow that it is impossible for them even to turn around. After the offspring are taken from their mothers at an unnaturally early age, the already stressed sow is immediately forced back into the breeding cycle, where she will spend the rest of her miserable life in these types of stalls.

This oppressive system is so cruel that gestation crates have been illegal in the U.K. since January 1, 1999, on animal welfare grounds, and recently, the European Union decided to phase out the tethering of sows, an equally cruel variation of the stall system, by 2005.

Furthermore, a 1997 report by the European Union’s Scientific Veterinary Committee (SVC) condemned gestation crates on veterinary grounds and stated that sows should be kept in groups. In fact, scientific studies have shown sow stalls to cause chronic stress and physical discomfort, reduced bone strength, lameness, trauma, excessive heat loss, increased susceptibility to urinary tract infection, inflammation of joints, skin abrasions, and highly repetitive, abnormal stereotypic behavior. (www.peta-online.org)

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