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Dry Sow Stalls
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The Issues
From the age of 8 to 10 months, intensively farmed breeding sows spend all day and night for much of the next three years in a narrow, metal barred pen, called a dry sow stall, with barely enough room to stand and lie down.
A standard sow stall is just 200 cm long x 60 cm wide, with a concrete floor. They are installed factory-style in long rows in a shed. The sows cannot turn around in their stalls and can only take a short step forward or back. The stalls are so narrow that when a sow lies down, her legs protrude into the neighbouring stall, and into the already limited space of her neighbour. The sows are imprisoned in these small crates during their 16-week pregnancy.
Denied the ability to exercise, many sows suffer severe muscle and bone deterioration, making it difficult for them to stand up and lie down. These torturous conditions eventually take their toll, and many of these highly intelligent, social animals begin to display repetitive or self-destructive behaviours (known as “stereotypes”), such as biting the metal bars all day, constant head bobbing and chain pulling. In short, they begin to go insane.
A few days before giving birth, the sows are transferred to farrowing crates, where they remain until their piglets are weaned, usually at three to four weeks of age. Farrowing crates are slightly narrower than sow stalls, and are designed to prevent sows from crushing their piglets in such confined conditions. However, this means that a sow cannot move or turn around, thus denying her strong maternal instinct to nurture her young and make a nest for them.
As soon as their piglets are weaned, sows are made pregnant again. Pregnant or lactating for most of their life, they spend most of their life in a dry sow stall or farrowing crate.
Individual dry sow stalls deny breeding sows their basic rights to the RSPCA’s Five Freedoms. RSPCA Qld is opposed to the use of sow stalls and farrowing crates because of the physical restrictions and adverse effects that these housing methods have on sow movement, social interactions and behaviour.
For more information on the dry sow stalls and intensive pig farming, visit RSPCA Australia at www.rspca.org.au.
Download this information as a fact sheet – click here.
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