Smithfield Foods Inc. announced Thursday that 38 percent of pregnant sows on its company-owned farms have been transferred to “group housing.” The remaining 62 percent are in “gestation stalls,” a form of housing criticized by animal-rights groups as too confining and unhealthy for animals.
Smithfield has vowed to move pregnant sows at all of its company-owned farms in the United States into group housing by 2017. As of the end of 2011, 30 percent of Smithfield’s pregnant sows were in group housing.
In a statement Thursday, Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, said he “welcomes Smithfield’s announcement that it is phasing out its use of gestation crates.” Pacelle added: “We recognize Smithfield’s progress and urge the company to set a policy to help its contract pig breeders stop using gestation crates, too.”
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