PETITION CLOSED
PETITION TARGET: National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC)
UPDATE (9/24/2021): We sent our petition, signed by more than 38,000 people, to The National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC). Unfortunately, NFACC said they are tabling code amendments related to gestation crates. “Subsequent to the public comment period, the Pig Code Amendment Committee has been unable to come to a full consensus on proposed amendments to the 2014 pig Code of Practice,” the NFACC website notes. “NFACC’s Board has determined that the pig Code amendment will be temporarily set aside pending NFACC undertaking a full review of its governance processes.” We are disappointed that NFACC did not act expeditiously on these very much needed changes for vulnerable mother pigs. We’ll continue to advocate for the end of gestation crates everywhere. —Lady Freethinker Staff
*
Mothers are locked inside cages barely bigger than their bodies and forcibly impregnated over and over again for years, all while having their babies ripped away from them at birth.
These cages are called gestation crates, and an estimated 900,000 female pigs endure this gruesome fate each year for Canada’s pork industry, according to the National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC) estimates. After years of sedentary suffering, these weak, overbred sows are slaughtered.
Now, policymakers want to extend a 2014 vow to end this unimaginably cruel practice by 2024, prolonging these helpless pigs’ horrifying torture until 2029 and putting millions more pigs through hellish round-the-clock confinement.
Depriving these highly intelligent and social animals of almost all movement and interaction inflicts severe anguish and pain. Many sows locked in gestation crates show telltale signs of suffering, including sores, weakness, and excessive drooling.
These innocent creatures have suffered for far too long, and there is no excuse for continuing this inhumane practice. Sign this petition urging the National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC) to implement the gestation crate ban in 2024 as originally planned, or sooner.
