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ADLA
Breaking News: The Nation’s No. 1 Pork Producer has agreed to phase out
gestation crates following Arizona’s Prop 204 Victory!
As a sponsoring
organization on Prop 204, ADLA offers its sincere thanks to all volunteers who
worked tirelessly to pass this historic
initiative.
Below
is today’s press release from HSUS:
The
Humane Society of the United
States Praises Smithfield Move to End Confinement of Pigs in
Gestation Crates
Nation’s
Largest Animal Protection Organization Calls the Change a “Monumental Advance”
for Animal Welfare
WASHINGTON (January 25,
2007) — Calling the company’s announcement “perhaps the most monumental advance
for animal welfare in history of modern American agribusiness,” The Humane
Society of the United States (HSUS) today praised Smithfield Corporation, the
nation’s largest pork producer, for announcing it has agreed to phase out the
confinement of pigs in gestation crates over the next decade. The decision
comes after voters in Arizona and Florida – in ballot
initiatives spearheaded by The HSUS – approved measures to outlaw the
crates. The Arizona measure, Proposition 204, was approved
in November by 62 percent of voters, in spite of a vigorous campaign by industry
to defeat it.
“This is an earthquake
in the pig industry,” stated Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The
HSUS. “Gestation crates are one of the most inhumane confinement systems used in
modern agribusiness, and this decision is a signal by the industry leader that
these crates have no place in the future of American agriculture. The Humane
Society of the United States
calls on the other major pork producers to follow Smithfield’s lead, and rid the industry of
this extraordinarily inhumane confinement system.”
Gestation crates are
two-foot by seven-foot metal cages that house breeding pigs. The sows have a
gestation period of four months, and are in the crates for nearly their entire
pregnancy. After giving birth, they are re-impregnated and placed back in the
crates, enduring perhaps 8 or 10 successive pregnancies in the crates before the
animals are reproductively “spent.” The crates are so restrictive that the
animals can’t even turn around for months on end. Pigs confined in gestation
crates suffer both leg and joint problems along with psychosis resulting from
extreme boredom and frustration.
Confinement in
gestation crates is so abusive that the entire European Union is phasing out the
practice, with a total ban taking effect in 2013. Numerous American animal
scientists also oppose these cruel crates. Farm animal expert Dr. Temple Grandin
states, “Gestation crates for pigs are a real problem...Basically, you're asking
a sow to live in an airline seat...I think it’s something that needs to be
phased out.”
Under Smithfield ’s plan,
breeding sows will instead be housed in group pens in which they have some
freedom of movement and the ability to socialize.
C. Larry Pope,
Smithfield Foods
CEO stated in a press release, “While this will be a significant financial
commitment for our company over the next 10 years, we believe it's the right
thing to do.”
Florida citizens voted to
prohibit gestation crate confinement in 2002, and the Arizona measure was
approved in 2006. The HSUS has been considering replicating these campaigns in
other states in the 2008 elections.
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