Target to Phase Out Pork From Cramped Sow Pens

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Target Corp. is the latest major food company to tell its pork suppliers to phase out the use of cramped stalls for confining pregnant sows. The Minneapolis-based discounter, the country's No. 4 food retailer, says on its Responsible Sourcing website that it's working with its pork vendors to eliminate gestation crates from its supply chain by 2022.
The announcement was welcomed Friday by the Humane Society of the United States, which says Target is joining more than 30 food companies that have agreed to eliminate the cages, including retailers like Costco and Kroger and producers including Smithfield, Hormel and Cargill. Pork producers use gestation crates because they stop sows from fighting, but the animal welfare group opposes them because they're typically too small to let sows even turn around.

Ok, on the surface, this looks like a good idea. But let's look a little closer. Gestation crates are used by producers for several reasons: they prevent sows from fighting, they keep the piglets safe from the sow rolling over on them and they make it easier and safer to administer medication to the sow in case of complications. Pigs are difficult to handle and the cages keep the hogs and the workers safe. Large corporations often do not realize how devices like this work and so require them to be phased out. Animal rights organizations also have a history of pushing to ban such devices and practices without actually researching why they are used. We need to keep in mind that producers really do have their animals best interests in mind and are not interested in abusing them: it hurts their bottom line and goes against their ethics.