New Jersey is the latest state to pass legislation to ban the use of gestation crates for pigs and that measure currently sits on the desk of Governor Chris Christie, who must still sign the measure into law.
The main organization pressing for Christie to sign the law is the animal rights group Mercy For Animals, and a representative of the organization, Nathan Runkle, explains the continued use of this controversial device.
Runkle describes the gestation crates as “inherently cruel factory devices” used to confine pregnant pigs. They are constructed out of concrete and metal and are barely larger than the animals’ own bodies.
When confined in the cages, the pigs can’t turn around, can’t lie down comfortably, and can’t walk, run, play or engage in other natural behaviors. “Pigs are intelligent animals, more intelligent than dogs, and when in these crates, they are not only deprived of physical stimulation, but mental stimulation as well,” Runkle said.
He says there’s a huge movement to outlaw gestation crates across the United States and that so far, nine states have already enacted legislation banning the devices, including California, Ohio, Michigan and half-a-dozen other states. “We hope that Governor Christie will make New Jersey the tenth state to do that.
“On factory farms, these mother pigs are really treated little more than meat-producing machines,” Runkle says of use of the confining crates. “They are artificially inseminated time and time again, they’re kept in these gestation crates until they are moved to another crate where they give birth, and then their piglets are taken away from them shortly after that. And then they’re re-impregnated and put back in the gestation crate.”
He says these pigs never go outside or into pasture, amounting to a “life of misery and deprivation.” Well-known livestock expert Temple Grandin has described the crates as the equivalent of a person living their life in an airline seat.
Some companies have embraced efforts to ban gestation crates, including McDonald’s, which announced in 2012 that it was working with suppliers to phase out the devices, and more than 60 major food companies have made that same commitment as well.
But one holdout on the issue has been retail giant Walmart, which has yet to join the industry bandwagon. “It’s really outrageous, any socially responsible company should at the bare minimum have a policy against gestation crates – these are one of the cruelest, institutional forms of animal abuse in existence today,” said Runkle, who noted that the whole European Union has already banned the devices.
“We’re calling on Walmart through an active campaign to phase out gestation crates,” he said, adding that Walmart’s main competitors have already done so. “Walmart has the power to completely transform this industry overnight with one policy change.”
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