Activists now target California pig producers
One of California’s largest pig farmers has been dragged to court by animal rights activists, claiming about 9,000 pregnant sows are kept ‘cramped in cages’.
The Animal Legal Defense Fund, together with a group of advocates and residents filed the complaint against CorcPork Inc., a pig farming company based in Kings County. Also named as a defendant was California’s leading pork packer, Clougherty Packing, a Los Angeles-based subsidiary of Hormel Foods Corporation.
Effective and humane
A Clougherty Packing spokesman said that the farm’s husbandry practices are ‘scientifically proven to be effective and humane,’ and said that small gestation stalls prevent pregnant sows from biting and scratching each other, as well as from rolling over on top of their piglets.
“This is the continuation of the seemingly endless attacks by these extreme animal rights organizations against responsible livestock farmers,” he added.
By saying that the spokesman referred to earlier court cases in the (virtually pigless) US states of Florida and Arizona, in which gestation crates have been forbidden over the last couple of years.
Loose sows
In the European Union, legislation is compelling pig farmers to be changing gradually from gestation crates into loose sow housing. As from January 1st, 2013 all gestation crates have to be disappeared.
Related websites:
• Animal Legal Defense Fund
• Hormel Foods
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