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

WASHINGTON and MONTREAL — Hundreds of thousands of breeding pigs will be spared needless cruelty for generations to come, as a second major North American pig producer announced that it will phase out the confinement of pigs in gestation crates over the next decade. Today, Canada's largest pig producer, Maple Leaf Foods, made the announcement less than one week after Smithfield Foods, the United States' largest pig producer, made a similar pledge. Humane Society International and The Humane Society of the United States applauded the decision, declaring that an animal welfare revolution is taking place in the North American pork industry.

Over the next 10 years, Maple Leaf Foods will phase out the use of gestation crates and 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.

"With the largest pig producers in the United States and Canada eliminating gestation crates, the writing on the wall is clear for the North American pork industry," Rebecca Aldworth, director of Humane Society International, Canada. "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. The Humane Society urges other pig producers to follow the lead of Maple Leaf and Smithfield, and end the use of these cruel crates."

Just last week, Smithfield Foods announced that it was phasing out gestation crates over the next decade in its 187 hog breeding operations housing 1.2 million pigs. Its decision came after voters in Arizona and Florida – in ballot initiatives spearheaded by The Humane Society of the United States – approved measures to outlaw the crates. The Arizona measure, Proposition 204, was approved in November by 62 percent of voters, and by a majority in 12 of 15 counties, in spite of a vigorous multi-million dollar campaign by industry to defeat it.

Gestation crates are two-foot by seven-foot metal cages that house breeding pigs. The sows have a gestation period of four months, and are in the crates for nearly their entire pregnancy. After giving birth, they are re-impregnated and placed back in the crates, enduring perhaps 8 or 10 successive pregnancies in the crates before the animals are reproductively "spent." The crates are so restrictive that the animals can't even turn around for months on end. 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 entire European Union is phasing out the practice, with a total ban taking effect in 2013. Numerous American animal scientists also oppose these cruel crates. Farm animal expert Dr. Temple Grandin states, "Gestation crates for pigs are a real problem...Basically, you're asking a sow to live in an airline seat...I think it's something that needs to be phased out."

Florida citizens voted to prohibit gestation crate confinement in 2002, and the Arizona measure was approved in 2006. HSUS has been considering replicating these campaigns in other U.S. states in the 2008 elections.

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The Humane Society of the United States is the nation's largest animal protection organization with nearly 10 million members and constituents. The HSUS is a mainstream voice for animals, with active programs in companion animals, disaster preparedness and response, wildlife and habitat protection, marine mammals, animals in research, equine protection, and farm animal welfare. The HSUS protects all animals through education, investigation, litigation, legislation, advocacy and field work. The nonprofit organization is based in Washington and has field representatives and offices across the country. 

Humane Society International is the international arm of The HSUS.