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In 2014, Canada’s pork industry supported a ban to phase out the use of gestation crates—cages that are just 2 feet (0.6 meters) wide and so small that they don’t even allow pregnant pigs to turn around or lie down comfortably—by 2024. Although it had 10 years to do so, the industry is now going back on its word and has implemented a five-year extension, which will leave these intelligent, playful animals trapped in extreme confinement during pregnancy until 2029.
Pigs are known to dream, recognize their own names, enjoy playing video games, and lead social lives of a complexity previously observed only in primates. They show empathy for other pigs who are happy or distressed, and they love building nests and relaxing in the sun.
When female pigs on farms are old enough to give birth, they’re forcibly impregnated and imprisoned for their entire pregnancies inside gestation crates. They often experience health problems such as ulcers and pressure sores from lack of movement. This intensive confinement, loneliness, and deprivation often cause mother pigs to go insane, which manifests as abnormal, neurotic behavior, such as incessantly chewing the air, biting cage bars, and pressing on water bottles.
Pigs are clever and complex beings who deserve kindness and respect, and they’re denied the opportunity to satisfy their basic desires and needs when they’re forced to live inside cramped metal crates. In the U.S., voters in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, and Rhode Island have already banned the use of gestation crates because of the cruelty involved. We must urge Canada’s minister of agriculture and agri-food, Marie-Claude Bibeau, to ensure that gestation crates are banned by 2024 as originally promised!