The calls follow a new report by Animal Equality UK, which is centred around 120 hours of footage collected from a Red Tractor-certified farm in Devon that shows the behaviour of three mother pigs kept in farrowing crates.
According to the report, approximately 10 million piglets are bred and slaughtered annually in the UK, with around 200,000 pigs used for breeding while confined in farrowing crates.
The footage, which was qualitatively and quantitatively analysed by veterinarians and animal welfare specialists, shows the mother pigs unable to turn around in their crates and forced to spend more than 90% of their time lying on uncomfortable slatted floors.
Meanwhile, the pigs bit the cage bars 127 times in five days, an indicator of extreme frustration and stress, and were unable to walk or root.
Changing posture was described by experts in the report as “challenging” for the animals, leading them to “repeatedly collide with the bars, which over time may exacerbate painful bruising”.
Pigs in farrowing cages can also suffer from painful pressure sores, prolapses, infections, and injuries severe enough to require culling.
Dr Helen Lambert, who has provided consultation to Defra regarding animal welfare indicators within slaughterhouses and is currently a member of the Stakeholder Advisory Board for the Animal Welfare Research Network, was one of the experts that analysed the footage.
“The mental state of these three pigs is severely compromised,” Dr Lambert said.
“Not only do these small crates prevent these sentient beings from moving freely and exercising control over their environment, but the measures legislatively required to ‘enrich’ their lives fail to do anything more than allow them to exhibit their clear frustration at their situation.”
Former pig veterinarian Dr Alice Brough also shared insights in the report: “Throughout years of farm work, veterinary practice, and subsequent years reviewing investigation footage, I have never seen enrichment adequate to satisfy their welfare needs provided to crated sows. Misery and apathy are very apparent working with crated sows.
“Conventional crate-based farrowing houses are at odds with what the government recommends regarding adequate enrichment material.”
Professor Steve McCulloch, a fellow at the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, explained that the pig industry has claimed that farrowing crates are necessary to reduce piglet mortality, but argued that this is “simply not true”.
“Piglet mortality is comparable and, in some cases, lower for UK outdoor sows,” McCulloch added.
“The principal ‘benefit’ of farrowing crates is not to reduce piglet mortality, but to minimise production costs.”
He concluded: “Farrowing crates manifestly violate all five welfare needs under Section 9 of the Animal Welfare Act in England and Wales.”
Bans or restrictions are in place in other countries such as Sweden, Switzerland and Germany.
Commenting on the report, Executive Director of Animal Equality UK Abigail Penny said: “Cages must be banned. Forcing intelligent mother pigs to eat, sleep, and defecate in a highly cramped space is unimaginably cruel.
“Such extreme confinement takes a terrible toll on the animals, who – unable to escape – inevitably become hopeless and traumatised. The Government must bring this senseless suffering to an end.”
