Gestation Crates

During their four-month pregnancies, many factory-farmed sows (female pigs) are kept in barren gestation crates—individual metal stalls 2 feet wide by 7 feet long—so small the animals can't even turn around. Gestation crates are widely known for their inherent cruelty and have already been banned in other countries and in Florida and Arizona. In early 2007, Smithfield Foods, the world's largest pig producer, announced a ten-year phase-out of the use of these severely restrictive crates for all of its corporate-owned facilities, yet sow stalls are still commonly used throughout the United States today.