September 2011 - Australian Veterinary Association

out their 16.5 week pregnancy in sow stalls. These
metal-barred stalls are so narrow that the sow cannot
even turn around. She is kept like this for one pregnancy
after another, i.e. for most of her adult life. In an
alternative version, the back of the stall is open so, to
prevent her escaping, the sow is tethered to the floor by
a neck or belly chain.
In 1991 the EU banned the tethering of sows from 2006.
Then in 1997 the Scientific Veterinary Committee published
a report that was highly critical of sow stalls.
Armed with this and economic data showing that housing
sows in groups added little to the cost of producing
pork, we pressed for an EU ban on stalls.
The industry responded by stressing the risk of aggression
among group housed sows. We pointed out that
many UK farmers had been using group housing for
some years and had learned that the way to prevent
aggression lies in avoiding competition at feeding and
not mixing unfamiliar sows.
My experience is that politicians will only agree to a reform
if they are convinced firstly that it enjoys wide public
support, secondly that it is supported by scientific
evidence, thirdly that it will not lead to a significant increase
in costs and fourthly that the proposed alternatives
are viable i.e. that they will not cause more problems
than they solve.
In this case, politicians were convinced and in 2001 the
EU enacted a ban on sow stalls. This comes into force
on 1 January 2013. From that date sows will have to be
housed in groups.
Unfortunately, the legislation allows, even after 2013,
sows to be kept in stalls for the first four weeks of the
pregnancy; this provision is criticised in a 2007 report by
the European Food Safety Authority which concludes
that allowing sows to be kept in stalls until four weeks
after mating severely restricts their freedom of movement
and causes stress, and that the lack of exercise
leads to impaired bone and muscular strength and reduced
cardiovascular fitness. In the UK and Sweden
gestation stalls have been banned for many years and
the bans apply throughout the pregnancy; there is no
“first four weeks” exception.
I would like to see sows being kept outdoors or indoors
in pens with a deep bed of straw. In the UK 40% of
sows are kept free range.
Fattening pigs
In industrial systems, most fattening pigs are kept indoors
in conditions of extreme deprivation – in overcrowded,
barren, often dirty sheds. Most are kept on bare concrete
or fully slatted floors with no straw or other bedding.
Stocking densities are often high.
In order to improve pig welfare, the EU Pigs Directive has
since 2003 required pigs to “have permanent access to a
sufficient quantity of material to enable proper investigation
and manipulation activities”. The Directive requires
provision of materials “such as straw, hay, wood, sawdust,
mushroom compost, peat”.
Scientific research shows that in natural conditions pigs
are highly active, spending 75% of their day rooting, for-
aging and exploring. Such activities are impossible for
factory farmed pigs. Bored and frustrated, they turn to
the only other “thing” in their bare pens: the tails of other
pigs. They begin to chew and then bite those tails.
To prevent tail biting, farmers slice off (dock) part of the
piglet’s tail. However, scientific research shows that the
correct way to prevent tail biting is not to dock the tails
but to keep the pigs in good conditions. Recognising
this, the Directive has since 2003 prohibited routine tail
docking.
The Directive requires farmers to try to prevent tail biting
by improving inadequate conditions. Only when they
have done this are they permitted, if they still have a tail
biting problem, to tail dock. A scientific report by the
European Food Safety Authority concludes that the major
causes of tail biting are lack of straw and a barren
environment. Thus a farmer who does not provide
straw or some similarly effective material has not
changed “inadequate conditions” and so cannot lawfully
tail dock.
Currently, many pig farmers are failing to comply with
the law on enrichment and tail docking but we are working
hard to secure improved enforcement of these crucial
laws which, if properly enforced, would make it impossible
to keep pigs in barren factory farms.
The castration of pigs by means that involve the tearing
of tissues has been prohibited in the EU since 2003.
Despite this most male pigs continue to be surgically
castrated which invariably entails the tearing of tissues.
In order to achieve improved compliance, the Commission
has brought key stakeholders together and, in an
interesting interplay between the law and voluntary action,
a number of EU pig farmers and other stakeholders
have agreed in the 2011 European Declaration on alternatives
to surgical castration of pigs:
from 1 January 2012, that surgical castration of pigs,
if carried out, shall be performed with prolonged analgesia
and/or anaesthesia, and
secondly, surgical castration should be abandoned
by 1 January 2018.
Veal crates
In the veal crate system the calf is kept in a solid-sided
crate of wood, which is so narrow that he cannot even
turn around from the age of two weeks.
Peter Roberts, the founder of Compassion in World
Farming, brought a private prosecution against a UK
veal crate farm run, ironically, by monks. The prosecution
failed but led to such a high degree of public concern
that the UK government banned veal crates from
1990.
In the early 90’s the UK exported 500,000 calves a year
to continental veal crates even though the system had
been banned in the UK. The UK also exported 2 million
sheep a year for slaughter abroad. The live export
trade was strongly opposed by the public but the government
argued that under the EU’s free trade rules
they could not ban calf exports.
We brought judicial review proceedings against the gov-
8