IATP Hog Report - Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

Section 6
In some of the largest hog factories 20% of the breeding sows die
prematurely, 46 and these deaths continue despite replacement and
opportunity costs of $500 or more per dead sow. 47 Despite years of
selecting pigs for adaptability to slatted flooring and crates, sow mortality
is increasing. 48 Sows are being pushed closer to their biological limit. 49
About 50% of sow mortality occurs in the first three weeks after sows
have farrowed (given birth); and approximately 27% of mortality is in
sows that have not farrowed, as sows are bred at younger and younger
ages.
Breeding males, or boars, when present on factory farms, often are housed
in crates and removed only when a worker collects semen. Vasectomized
boars may also be taken to the weaned sow area where they are used to
detect sows in estrus.
When a boar's useful life is over, a common practice is for workers to bash
in his nose before loading him in the cull truck. 50 The pain prevents him
from fighting with other culled pigs. Using gates to isolate him from other
pigs on the truck could also prevent fighting. Another hallmark of animal
factories is that no accommodation is made for the instinctive behaviors of
animals. Management is often by force.
Slatted and perforated floors allow feces and urine to drop or be hosed into
storage pits beneath the barns. The animals are continuously exposed to
ammonia, methane, and other gases emitted from the pits. When
ventilation systems fail, an entire barn full of pigs can be killed by
asphyxiation. Carbon monoxide given off by poorly-maintained heaters
operating in sow barns has been known to cause stillbirths and abortions. 51
During Hurricane Floyd, millions of farm animals and poultry perished
trapped in animal factories. Estimates of hog losses in the floods range
from under 30,000 (industry estimate) to half a million (environmental
groups' estimates). 52
Life of the Weaned Pig
In the United States, the procedure known as SEW, or segregated early
weaning (or sometimes medicated early weaning), is used to reduce
piglets' exposure to disease by weaning them before the colostrum in the
mother's milk runs out. It also has the effect of increasing the number of
litters to which individual sows give birth in a year because the sows can
be rebred sooner. 53
Segregated, early-weaned pigs are taken from their mothers when they are
between five and 15 days old and transported to a secured and sterile
nursery site that may be miles away from the site where they were born.
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