Yeah little piggies!

Dear Lonestarnot,

I have some great news to share with you. Smithfield Foods, Inc., the nation's largest pork producer with 1.2 million breeding sows, announced today it will phase out the confinement of pigs in gestation crates over the next decade.

You may recall--and may have participated in--ballot initiatives in Arizona and Florida where The HSUS led the way for breeding pigs. In 2002, Florida voters approved a ban on gestation crates in their state, and in 2006, Arizona voters did likewise, in spite of a well-financed opposition campaign from factory farming interests.


Gestation crates are 2-foot by 7-foot metal cages used to confine breeding pigs for months on end. Pigs confined suffer leg and joint problems and psychosis resulting from extreme boredom and frustration. Confinement in gestation crates is so abusive that the entire European Union is phasing out the practice, with a total ban taking effect in 2013.

The move by Smithfield is an earthquake for the pork industry. This is a clear signal from a top producer that this cruel confinement has no place in the agricultural sector. With the recent political victories against gestation crates and now this news from Smithfield, the writing is certainly on the wall: gestation crate confinement will soon become a thing of the past.

To learn more about this remarkable news for these intelligent, social farm animals, click here. Thank you for all you do for animals every day--please consider this your victory as well.

Sincerely,

Wayne Pacelle
President & CEO
The Humane Society of the United States

:bounce:

even in the ballpark. NOW is the time to stop mistreating animals. Does Smithfield think it deserves a Brownie point as in "Great job, Brownie"?