What Pigs Want and Need to Be Happy and Healthy

Socializing

Wallowing in Mud

Caring for Their Babies

Pigs are extremely social and sensitive animals whose intelligence is comparable to dogs. In the United States, most pigs are raised in factory farms where they live in very crowded indoor conditions.

GESTATION CRATES: When pregnant, the pigs live in gestation crates or individual stalls. Separating them this way prevents them from fighting and injuring each other. They also make it easier for the farmer to administer vaccines and monitor individual sow health. , so small it Gestation crates or individual stalls are used as a way to nurture the animals and protect them first during pregnancy. Because the animals are vulnerable during this time, with some sows more aggressive than others, the practice of separating the animals in crates keeps them from fighting and injuring each other. In addition, the case has also been made that crates make it easier for hog farmers to monitor individual sow health and administer vaccines as needed. these crates are so small that the pig cannot turnaround nor move more than a few inches forward and back.

FARROWING CRATES: Before giving birth, pigs are transferred to farrowing crates allowing the piglets access to milk but without allowing the sow to interact with her offspring. In factory farms breeding programs, the sows are bred to grow very large. Farrowing crates prevent piglets from being crushed under the weight of their mothers. Like gestation crates, farrowing crates do not allow the pigs to turn around. Piglets are weaned at 3 weeks of age at which time the sows are returned to gestation crates.

Male pigs are confined in indoor crowded pens with cement or slatted floors and without access to daylight. These stressful conditions often lead to tail-biting and fighting, and the overcrowding unsanitary conditions where pigs live in their own waste, lead spread of diseases. Pigs in feedlots are routinely treated with antibiotics.

STEP TWO: The pigs are run through a “slaughter box” in which their heads are immobilized. A worker puts a stun gun to the pig’s head and pulls the trigger, sending a bolt into the pig’s brain. When done correctly, the bolt causes loss of consciousness.

How Pork Gets From the Farm to Your Table

Rooting in the Ground

STEP ONE: Trucks transport the pigs to the slaughter house. Overcrowding of animals on the truck adds to the stress of travel for them.

STEP THREE: The unconscious animals are suspended by their hind legs and blood vessels in the neck are sliced. Blood loss is the cause of death.

TEP FOUR: The animals are butchered (cut up into pieces) before being distributed for consumption.