Gestation crates are tiny cages used to cruelly confine breeding pigs.

"Confining an animal for most of its life in a box in which it is not able to turn around does not provide a decent life... We've got to treat animals right, and gestation stalls have got to go."

- Dr. Temple Grandin, Pork Industry Advisor

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Corporate Commitments

Nearly 60 leading companies have condemned gestation crates, mandating better conditions for pigs in their pork supply chains. And here is what just a few of them have to say. Click the logo to see company statements.

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"All animals need to turn around; they were designed that way. But pigs, especially, are interesting individuals with unique personalities and complex behavior and cognition. It is no more acceptable to cram pigs into tiny crates than it would be to do the same thing to dogs."

- Martha Stewart

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Photograph by Jo-Anne McArthur, We Animals

Media

Mainstream media outlets have echoed the public's demand for change by issuing official editorials against gestation crate confinement.

8 "You'd have to have rocks in your head to build a new barn with gestating sow stalls."

"Gestation stalls done? Seems like it."
3 "Game over. For any pork producer still on the fence [about gestation crates], the... move is inevitable."
4 "One major food corporation after another, from McDonald's to Safeway, has announced plans to stop buying pork from suppliers that confine pregnant sows in gestation stalls."
6 "There is no justification… for the abusive practice of confining animals in spaces barely larger than the volume of their bodies… Industrial confinement is cruel and senseless and will turn out to be, we hope, a relatively short-lived anomaly in modern farming."
1 "Crates may no longer have a future in pork."
5 "[Sows] are highly intelligent animals that are, in essence, tortured during the duration of their breeding lives."
7 "Pigs confined so tightly develop health problems that require antibiotics, raising human health concerns. More than that, the cages are simply cruel."
2 "This little piggie is bred for market. This little piggie can't turn around. That's about to change."

US States with Gestation Crate Bans

The states in green below have passed legislation banning gestation crates. Click a state for details.

Blank map of the United States, territories not included Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming District of Columbia District of Columbia

"Pigs in tiny crates suffer beyond anything most of us can easily imagine."

- Ryan Gosling

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Photograph by Jo-Anne McArthur, We Animals

References

  1. Dan Piller, "Crates May No Longer Have a Future in Pork," Des Moines Register, June 7, 2012.
  2. Kat Kinsman, "Clarified—What Are Gestation Crates?," June 6, 2012, available at www.eatocracy.cnn.com/2012/06/06/gestation-crates/, Accessed September 30, 2013.
  3. Editorial, "Editorial: The Big One," Meatingplace, March 2012, p. 2.
  4. Steve Chapman, "Giving Pigs Room to Move Eases our Discomfort," Chicago Tribune, August 25, 2013.
  5. Editorial. 2013. Stop Tormenting Breeding Sows. Toronto Star. 20 August. http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2013/08/20/stop_tormenting_breeding_sows_editorial.html. Accessed 17 September 2013.
  6. Editorial, "A Humane Egg," The New York Times, July 11, 2010, available at www.nytimes.com/2010/07/12/opinion/12mon4.html, accessed September 17, 2013.
  7. Editorial, "Editorial: Illinois, like McDonald's, should ban cruel cage," Chicago Sun-Times, February 14, 2012, available at www.suntimes.com/opinions/10637928-474/editorial-illinois-like-mcdonalds-should-ban-cruel-cage.html, accessed September 17, 2013.
  8. Ed White, "Gestation Stalls Done? Seems Like it," The Western Producer, April 30, 2013, www.producer.com/2013/04/gestation-stalls-done-seems-like-it/, accessed September 17, 2013
    Ed White, "Consider risks involved in building sow stall barn," The Western Producer, June 1, 2012, http://www.producer.com/2012/06/consider-risks-involved-in-building-sow-stall-barn/, accessed September 30, 2013.
  9. Farm Sanctuary: Martha Stewart, Bill Maher Urge N.J. Gov. Christie to Ban Cruel Crates. October 22, 2014, https://www.farmsanctuary.org/news-stories/martha-stewart-bill-maher-urge-nj-gov-christie-ban-cruel-crates/
  10. Ryan Gosling, "A Tiny Cage is Not a Life", The Globe and Mail, December 11, 2012, https://web.archive.org/web/20130816082112/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/a-tiny-cage-is-not-a-life/article13117337/
  11. Phillip Walzer, “Temple Grandin appears in Smithfield Foods videos,” Virginian-Pilot, April 10, 2012, available at http://hamptonroads.com/2011/04/temple-grandin-appears-smithfield-foods-videos, accessed 6 March 2012.