PIG FARMING IN NEW ZEALAND

Narrated by award-winning actor Robyn Malcolm, the 10-minute documentary-styled presentation makes compelling arguments against factory farming. Robyn takes us through how pregnant sows are cruelly treated inside sow stalls and farrowing crates and just what happens to the young piglets destined to become pork.

 Factory farmed pigs and breeding sows are kept indoors under three main types of systems. All three systems used in New Zealand are extremely cruel and cause pigs to suffer both physically and mentally.

The dry sow stall

The dry sow stall is a small metal-barred crate that is widely used on factory farms. The stall is so narrow the pregnant sow cannot turn around, let alone exercise. A sow stall is 60 centimetres wide and two metres long — just a fraction bigger than the sow herself. She will be confined in the sow stall for all or part of her 16-week pregnancy. All she can do is stand up or lie down. The uncomfortable concrete floor and lack of exercise can cause her to develop foot and leg problems and lameness. She is also prone to urinary infections and heart problems. Pigs in sow stalls commonly exhibit repetitive, unnatural behaviour such as bar biting. Experts regard this behaviour as a sign that the animals are under stress an suffering.

• How many New Zealand pig farmers use dry sow stalls? 29 per cent. These are mostly large-scale producers responsible for the confinement of 45 per cent of sows (21,000 animals).
• Sow stalls are banned in the United Kingdom and Sweden and will be soon phased out in Finland, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Denmark.
• Sows love to sleep, spending about half their time sleeping and dozing, snuggled together in communal nests.

The farrowing crate

At the end of her pregnancy the sow is placed in a farrowing crate where she will give birth. As in the sow stall she can only stand up and lie down. With no straw for bedding, she scrapes her nose over the bare concrete floor in an attempt to build a nest for her piglets. Her inability to properly mother her piglets only adds further frustration and depression Her piglets will be taken away at a mere four weeks of age. The grieving sow will be impregnated again and returned to the sow stall where the cycle of abuse starts all over again.

• How many New Zealand pig farmers use farrowing crates? 67 per cent.
• Sweden and Switzerland have banned the farrowing crate.
• Most sows have 8-12 piglets each litter.
• Outdoors, pregnant sows construct a private nest apart from the group, in which to give birth to, and suckle, their babies.

Pigs to pork (fattening pens)

Separated from their mothers, piglets spend the remainder of their short lives crammed inside dark, overcrowded pens on concrete or wooden-slatted floors. The piglets are unable to roam, play or dig, as they would do naturally outdoors. Instead, they spend the time just lying in their own faeces and urine. The stress of living under such harsh conditions causes the piglets to attack their pen-mates and they often bite each other’s tails. This can lead to more serious forms of cannibalism. To combat this, farmers cut off the piglets’ tails in their first week of life, instead of providing the pigs with more space.

• Around 800,000 pigs are farmed and killed each year in New Zealand.

• Outside, pigs spend most of their waking hours foraging for food by rooting up the soil and undergrowth with their snouts.