Canada’s Largest Pig Producer to End Confinement of Pigs in Gestation Crates

Pigs need room to move around. ©istockphoto

Canada's largest pig producer, Maple Leaf Foods, announced Jan. 31 that it will phase out the confinement of pigs in gestation crates over the next decade.

HSI Canada applauded the historic decision, which will spare hundreds of thousands of breeding pigs from needless cruelty for generations to come. The announcement came less than one week after Smithfield Foods, the largest pig producer in the United States, made a similar pledge.

Over the next 10 years, Maple Leaf Foods will convert to group housing systems, where breeding pigs will have some freedom of movement and the ability to socialize. The phase-out will affect 116,000 animals each year.

Gestation crates are 2-foot by 7-foot metal cages that house breeding sows for nearly their entire lives. The crates are so restrictive that the animals can't even turn around. Pigs confined in gestation crates suffer both leg and joint problems along with psychosis resulting from extreme boredom and frustration.

Confinement in gestation crates is so abusive that the European Union is phasing out the practice, with a total ban taking effect in 2013.

"With the largest pig producers in Canada and the United States eliminating gestation crates, the writing on the wall is clear for the North American pork industry," Rebecca Aldworth, director of HSI Canada, said. "There is no room in the future of agribusiness for gestation crates, which are one of the most inhumane confinement systems used in modern factory farms. HSI Canada urges other pig producers to follow the lead of Maple Leaf and Smithfield, and end the use of these cruel crates."