Pigs
We thank our member society, the BC SPCA… for allowing us to include this information and their factsheets on our website.
Pigs are intelligent, social animals – like their wild relatives, pigs love to explore and “root” around.
Yet pigs raised for food are normally kept inside on concrete floors and in confining pens causing extreme stress and frustration. Sows (female pigs) are kept in the most confining pens (called “gestation stalls” and “farrowing crates”) for the majority of their lives. They can lie down, stand up or sit, and may be able to walk a few steps forward and back. However, they typically do not have enough room to turn around or to engage in natural behaviours that are important to them.
Gestation stalls are a popular choice as they allow for increased control over individual feed intake and can prevent aggression between sows. Farrowing crates are used to restrict the movement of the sow after she has given birth to her litter, in order to protect newborn piglets from being crushed when a sow lies down unexpectedly.
In these systems, sows are deprived of the ability to express important natural behaviours that they are highly motivated to perform such as roaming, rooting, digging, building nests and interacting with other animals.
Learn more
Read these detailed factsheets from the BC SPCA…:
Pig Production Factsheet [pdf file: 0.24mb]
Pig Welfare Factsheet [pdf file: 0.15mb]
Watch this video to see how the vast majority of sows in Canada are housed (from Canadians for the Ethical Treatment of Food Animals)
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