Abusing animals
Every year 1.2 billion pigs worldwide are slaughtered for meat, of which more than half have been reared by industrial, intensive methods.
These figures would be the equivalent of butchering the combined human populations of the USA, the United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Austria, Romania, Spain, Luxembourg, Slovakia, Sweden, Finland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Hong Kong, Israel, North Korea, Cyprus, Nepal, Switzerland, Portugal, Kuwait, Cuba, Croatia, Latvia, Costa Rica, Cambodia, Czech Republic, Malaysia, Australia, Canada, Norway, Greece, New Zealand, Morocco, Iraq, Kenya, Afghanistan, Denmark, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Slovenia, Rwanda and Chile.
Around 9.5 million pigs were slaughtered in the UK in 2007, 70% of which were intensively reared.
Endless pregnancy
Female pigs (sows) are first inseminated when they are 6-8 months old, mostly artificially. A sow’s pregnancy last about 16 weeks and she usually has 10 to 12 piglets per litter. She would normally wean her young at 12 to 14 weeks; however, in intensive farming her piglets are forcibly weaned much earlier, at 3 to 4 weeks. One week after weaning, she will be inseminated again. After giving birth to between 4 and 7 litters, exhausted by a life of constant pregnancies, she is slaughtered, typically aged between 3 and 5 years, and her carcass is used for low-quality meat products such as sausages and pork pies. Her natural lifespan would have been between 10 and 15 years.
Immobilised
A factory-farmed sow is often confined to a sow stall during pregnancy – which is most of her adult life. This is a metal crate or cage barely bigger than the pig, usually with a bare slatted floor for faeces and urine to drop through, so narrow that she cannot turn round or change position, and may only stand up or lie down. The stall prevents her from foraging or rooting, or making any choices or movements. It is convenient for the farmer, who in this way can attend to her bodily functions more efficiently and profitably.
Pigs are naturally inquisitive, strong, nimble and intelligent creatures, and sows held in such stalls often show signs of severe psychological distress and frustration, biting the bars of their cages and exhibiting behaviour similar to clinical depression. Lamed by weakened bones and muscles, they also often experience abrasion injuries, cardiovascular problems, digestive problems and urinary tract problems. While sow stalls are already illegal in the UK, Sweden, Finland and Switzerland they will only be partially banned across Europe from 2013 onwards.
Piglets behind bars
Sows due to give birth are moved to special cages called farrowing crates, still used in the UK. These are like sow stalls, but with a small extra area to the side for the piglets, separated by bars from the mother. The extent to which farrowing crates prevent the sow from crushing her young remains controversial. Industry figures suggest that mortality rates are higher without the crated system however it is unlikely that the difference is as great as often reported. Recent DEFRA funded research suggests that whilst there are benefits to confinement in the first couple of days of weaning, after this time there is no difference.
Thus the sow is barred from her offspring and cannot build a nest for them or care for them in her own way. Meanwhile the close physical restraint of the farrowing crate is liable to give her muscle weakness, lameness and inflammatory swellings of the joints. She is kept in the crate until her piglets are taken away at 3 to 4 weeks of age.
Castrated, tailing docking and teeth clipping
At 3 to 4 weeks, most young, intensively reared pigs are put into overcrowded, poorly lit pens or metal cages without any bedding, where, bored and frustrated they often resort to biting each other’s tails. To prevent this, very young pigs are usually castrated and have their teeth clipped and tails cut off, all without anaesthetic. Tail docking is banned in the EU unless there is a particular justification for it. However, because overcrowding can drive pigs to injure each other, it is widely used. In fact removing the tail can be seen as a mercy.
Castration without anaesthetic is performed on male pigs to prevent boar taint in the meat and reduce problems associated with mounting/riding behaviour and aggression when male pigs get older. This does not occur in the UK where the pigs are slaughtered at a younger age. In addition, teeth clipping is carried out to prevent the piglets from damaging the sow when she is suckling them and to prevent them injuring each other when young. Teeth clipping and tail docking are practised in the UK, but piglets are generally not castrated. They are usually slaughtered after 4 to 7 months.
Free range – a better life for pigs
Under the British Soil Association’s organic standards, the use of farrowing crates and sow stalls in pig production is prohibited. To classify as organically reared, pigs must be able to range free, with space to move about, explore and wallow in mud, and they must not be ringed through the nose, a mutilation often performed to prevent them from rooting up the earth (for more information on organic standards see the ‘Labelling’ section of the website).