02/07/07 Gestation Stalls for Sows

In what the Humane Society of the United States is calling "perhaps the most monumental advance for animal welfare in the history of American Agribusiness," Smithfield Foods, a pork producer, announced they will make the move from gestations stalls to pens. For most of us, (with the exception of pigs that is) this doesn't seem like a monumental deal but Smithfield's decision comes in the wake of new legislation in both Florida and Arizona outlawing gestation crates for pigs all together. Europe is banning them by 2013 as well. Meaning if you are a sow lucky enough to be in a state that bans gestation stalls you will now able to move about a bit when pregnant. The fact that pregnant pigs have rights is the result of an animal rights group alleging that one of California largest pig farmers crammed pregnant sows in crates so tight they couldn't move for months on end. It is nice to know that before "this little piggy goes to market" his mommy will now be "sow" much more comfortable .