Stop Mother Pigs from Being Caged in Extreme Confinement

The new leader of the USDA wants to see mother pigs crammed back into gestation crates, tiny stalls where they are forced to remain for several months while pregnant until they give birth. This is beyond cruel and completely unacceptable.

Recently appointed United States Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has stated that she plans to force states to accept pork from farms that use gestation crates, effectively attempting to undermine California’s Proposition 12. This landmark animal welfare bill, passed in 2018 with the support of 63% of California voters, outlawed the use of gestation crates for sows and battery cages for laying hens. It also prohibited the sale of meat in the state that was produced using these cruel confinement methods. Representatives of the factory farming industry have fought for years to overturn the law, which was ultimately upheld by the conservative-majority Supreme Court in 2023.

Secretary Rollins has no right to undermine individual states’ ability to set higher welfare standards for animals, and her support for gestation crates is a blatant example of craven pandering to the monopolistic factory farming industry and an unthinkable display of callousness toward animal suffering.

Although ten states across the U.S. have banned gestation crates, these abusive cages remain standard practice on the country’s largest pig factory farms. The stalls, typically seven feet long by two feet wide, are barely larger than the mother pig’s body, leaving her no room to turn around. Throughout the deeply emotional period of pregnancy, these vulnerable, highly intelligent animals can only stand up and lie down in place. The mother pigs often suffer injuries as a result of their confinement, including sores, lameness, urinary tract infections, and abrasions.

In nature, pigs, much like human mothers, spend the days before giving birth carefully selecting a spot and building a safe nest for their babies out of natural materials like leaves, branches, straw, and hay. Factory farms using extreme confinement methods strip these innocent animals of their ability to live naturally. Instead, mother pigs are repeatedly bred in these cruel conditions until they are killed at just a few years old, and their female offspring are forced into the same cycle of suffering.

Pigs are highly intelligent, with studies showing they are smarter than dogs and have cognitive abilities comparable to, or even more advanced than, those of three-year-old human toddlers. They are very empathic animals, with research finding that they will attempt to rescue their companions from confinement. They also demonstrate impressive problem-solving skills and the ability to complete complex cognitive tests. These animals deserve so much better than months of extreme confinement and suffering. Banning gestation crates is the bare minimum of compassion that pigs trapped in the meat industry deserve.

The new U.S. Secretary of Agriculture is making a terrible and unconscionable decision by opposing progress, undermining states’ rights, and supporting one of the cruelest practices in industrialized animal agriculture.

Take Action Now

Please join Species Unite in calling on Secretary Rollins to reject cruel gestation crates and respect states' rights to set stronger animal welfare protections. Californians and voters across the country have made it clear that keeping mother pigs in extreme confinement is unacceptable. Instead of siding with the factory farming industry, Secretary Rollins must uphold the will of the people and protect animals from suffering, not force states to accept animal abuse they have already rejected.