Why Manitoba
Must
"Quit Stalling"
Caging sows on concrete is
the root of
our mega hog-barn problem
By VICKI BURNS
Ten years ago, shortly after I began my job as Executive Director of the Winnipeg Humane Society, people began calling me to ask if I knew how pigs were raised. I didn’t, but I soon learned. I found out that pigs in factory farms lead deplorable lives; and gradually I realized it was up to the Humane Society to try to change that.
As a mainstream animal welfare organization the Winnipeg Humane Society does not oppose animals being used by humans. But we do believe we have a responsibility to see that those animals enjoy a decent quality of life. By that I mean a life that fits their nature — "birds gotta fly, fish gotta swim." For pigs, that means having straw or some other natural substrate to root and build a nest in and the opportunity to socialize with others of their kind.
Spearheaded by The Winnipeg Humane Society in 2003, Quit Stalling is a campaign to ban sow stalls in the hog industry in Manitoba by 2013.
Why?
Because sow stalls are tiny, cruel and unnecessary. The sow (the mature female pig) is confined in one of these stalls almost her entire adult life from the time she reaches breeding age at the age of six months. She is kept in a gestation stall for most of her 115-day pregnancy then moved to a farrowing stall about a week before she gives birth. Within a few weeks after giving birth, she’s moved back to the gestation stall to be impregnated again.
So what’s wrong with these stalls?
Size.
Sow stalls are approximately two feet by seven feet. The sow is not able to move more than a step or two forward or backward. She cannot even turn around and can only lie down with her feet sticking through to her neighbour’s stall. She has to do everything in this one tiny space, including eating, sleeping, urinating, defecating, giving birth and nursing her young.
So what is wrong with that?
If you think about any animal, whether it be a pet cat or dog, or another farm animal — cow, horse, sheep — it is hard to imagine she would choose to be so confined for almost her entire adult life. Pigs are intelligent, social animals with basic instincts to do certain things like rooting on the ground for food, creating a nest prior to the birth of their young and socializing with others of their kind. When they cannot fulfill those basic, hardwired instincts, it causes them chronic frustration and suffering. Pigs do suffer pain, fear and boredom just like other animals.
So why do we allow them to be treated this way?
Because it is part of what we have come to accept as "industrialized agriculture."
Back in the years following World War II, scientists and agriculturists made some fascinating discoveries about what happens if you feed low doses of antibiotics to chickens: they grow much faster. This gave momentum to a new concept: "factory farming," the mass confinement and rapid production of animals for food.
Over the past fifty years much more effort has gone into refining this technology to give us "cheaper food." But at what real cost?
There is a growing consciousness among consumers of the hidden costs of factory farming: the environmental threats to water and air; the loss of the family farm and what that means for rural communities; the dependence on multinational corporate agribusiness; the human health threats. And the diminished welfare of the animals.
Now back to the reason for Quit Stalling. I believe that the root of all these problems, and specifically the hog industry’s, is the close confinement of hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of animals in completely unnatural settings in a very small space under one roof. Not only does this lead to tremendous animal suffering, it leads to overuse of low doses of antibiotics and the threat of antibiotic-resistant "superbugs," to concentrated liquid manure systems that emperil our natural water systems, to noxious odours that go beyond just nuisance levels, and to the disruption of the very fabric of our rural communities. If we can get rid of these intensive confinement systems that are the foundation of factory farming, we can go a long way towards solving many of the other concerns.
But is it possible to raise pigs without sow stalls?
Absolutely — farmers right here in Manitoba are doing it. They keep their sows in groups in pens on straw, in many ways like our grandfathers raised pigs.
So why doesn’t everyone do that?
Because they probably won’t be able to keep as many pigs under one roof — and they will have to know a little more about good pig husbandry to minimize fighting. Preventing fighting is the usual industry excuse for sow stalls. But overcrowding, boredom and other sources of stress breed fighting, while roomy, naturalistic hog pens or hoop barns — with good husbandry — obviate the problem and make for much better animal welfare overall.
Would Manitoba be the fist place to "quit stalling"?
No. The European Union has voted to phase out sow stalls by 2013. Several countries, including Sweden, Great Britain and Switzerland, already have. In New Zealand, the pig farmers themselves voted to get rid of sow stalls by 2012. Florida is the first American state to ban them, and there also are campaigns in several other states.
So what can you do to help?
Send a letter or one of our tear-off cards to The
Minister of Agriculture, Rosann Wowchuk, and to your own MLA letting them
know that you want sow stalls phased out. You can download it at quitstalling.ca
under resources/brochure. Or call us at 982-3555.
| Drop off a customer suggestion
form (click the picture at the right) at
your grocery store asking them to stock pork that comes from farms that
are not using sow stalls, or just ask them to call us to learn how to obtain
humane-certified pork.
When you go to restaurants or fast food outlets like McDonalds, ask them to purchase meat from farmers that don’t use sow stalls or other intensive confinement systems. |
 |
Remember, although we may think that individually we don’t have much power, if each one of us chooses to use our voice and our consumer power, together we can be a very powerful force.
It's time to put ethics, respect for animals and
for the environment back into animal agriculture. Please join us in making
that happen.
Vicki Burns is Executive Director of the Winnipeg Humane Society and Vice President of Hogwatch Manitoba. This article is adapted from a presentation she gave this February at the University of Manitoba.
PLEASE NOTE: Some of these outlets aren't always in stock. Most also carry other WHS certified or organic meats, dairy and eggs. Prices can be as low as conventional pork or considerably higher. Some of the farmers will deliver.
A-1 Nutrition, Grant Park Shopping Centre
Ambrosia Organic Groceries, 684 Osborne St.
Clinton and Pamela Cavers, Pilot Mound, 825-2465
Bruce and Michaela Daum, Forrest, 727-8058
Forks Meat Market, The Forks
Frigs Natural Meats and More, 3515 Main St.
Harry’s Foods, 905 Portage Ave.
Ed and Debra Hodgins, Lenore, 838-2009
House of Nutrition, 770 Notre Dame Ave.
Scott & Jacoba Nault, Woodridge, 429-2281
Organic Bread Basket, 269-0658
Organza Foods, 664 Corydon Ave.
Sara’s Supermarket, 775 Westminster Ave.
Ian Smith, Argyle, 467-8590
Vita Health Natural Food Stores, various locations
Restaurant: Urban Ojas Restaurant and Juice Bar,
684 Osborne St.
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“This book is a rousing call to arms....I wish it were required reading for every politician and every citizen in Canada and the United States.” — Robert Kennedy, Jr.
Read more of our coverage of "The Price of Pork"