Investigation · Pigs · United States

InsideSmithfield:GestationCratesintheWorld'sLargestPorkProducer

Despite a public 2007 pledge to phase them out, undercover footage from multiple Smithfield-owned and contract facilities continues to document mother pigs confined in metal stalls so narrow they cannot turn around.

2024 · HSUS, DxE and Mercy For Animals

Summary

Gestation crates — individual stalls roughly 0.6 m × 2 m — confine breeding sows for months at a time. Smithfield Foods, the world's largest pork producer, pledged in 2007 to eliminate them by 2017. Investigations in 2018, 2021 and 2024 continue to find them in use.

0.0 m

Width of a standard gestation crate

0%

Of US breeding sows still housed in crates

Part 1

What the footage shows

Activists have documented sows unable to turn around, repeated bar-biting, and untreated pressure sores.

Footage from 2024 shows piglets being killed by «thumping», a practice the company disowned.

Sources

Where this reporting comes from

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