What Pigs Want and Need to Be Happy and Healthy

Socializing

Wallowing in Mud

Caring for Their Babies

Pigs are extremely social and sensitive animals whose intelligence is comparable to dogs. In the United States, most pigs are raised in factory farms where they live in very crowded indoor conditions.

GESTATION CRATES: When pregnant, the pigs live in gestation crates or individual stalls. Separating them this way prevents them from fighting and injuring each other. The crates also make it easier for the farmer to administer vaccines and monitor individual sow health. The crates are so small that the pigs are unable to walk or even turn aound.

FARROWING CRATES: Before giving birth, pigs are transferred to farrowing crates allowing the piglets access to milk but without allowing sows to interact with their offspring. This prevents piglets from being crushed under the weight of their mothers due to their inability to move. Piglets are weaned at 3 weeks of age at which time the sows are returned to gestation crates.

Male pigs are confined within indoor crowded pens without access to daylight. The flooring is slatted or cement. These stressful conditions often lead to tail-biting and fighting. The overcrowding and unsanitary conditions in which pigs live in their own waste, lead to spread of diseases.

STEP TWO: The pigs are run through a “slaughter box” in which their heads are immobilized. A worker puts a stun gun to the pig’s head and pulls the trigger, sending a bolt into the pig’s brain. When done correctly, the bolt causes loss of consciousness.

How Pork Gets From the Farm to Your Table

Rooting in the Ground

STEP ONE: Trucks transport the pigs to the slaughter house. Overcrowding of animals on the truck adds to the stress of travel for them.

STEP THREE: The unconscious animals are suspended by their hind legs and blood vessels in the neck are sliced. Blood loss is the cause of death.

STEP FOUR: The animals are butchered (cut up into pieces) before being distributed for consumption.