PIGS TO BECOME NEW CHICKENS AS CAMPAIGNERS LOBBY EU (Fiona Hall MEP)

Fiona Hall MEP <info@fionahall.org.uk>

PIGS TO BECOME NEW CHICKENS AS CAMPAIGNERS LOBBY EU

October 28, 2008 12:00 AM

While animal welfare campaigners have been very successful in raising awareness of the appalling conditions suffered by battery chickens, the plight of pigs reared in small cages or sow stalls is still unknown to many consumers.

In Europe, a pregnant sow typically spends her 16-week pregnancy confined in a sow stall. Each stall is no more than a narrow metal cage where there is barely room to move or turn round and there can be hundreds of stalls in one shed. In contrast the UK pig industry adheres to one of the strictest welfare standards in Europe, with sow stalls being banned in 1999 and currently an estimated third of pigs born in the fresh air.

Now, leading European animal welfare organisations have turned their efforts towards the pig industry and are asking the European Commission to introduce vital reforms for the rearing of pigs within the EU - such as a ban of castration without anaesthetics, more space for fattening pigs, and a phase out of farrowing crates.

Fiona Hall MEP for the North East, believes that a review of pig rearing practices in the EU would benefit the UK pig industry - which breeds several million pigs every year - and has tabled a Parliamentary Question, asking the European Commission when its overdue report on the state of pigs in Europe will finally be published.

Fiona said: "Animal welfare is an important issue we need to get a grip with at a European level - especially if we want to ensure that our farming industries stay competitive.

"Spending that little bit more on British pork is worth the extra cost of knowing that the UK has in place solid welfare standards, in stark contrast to some EU countries where pigs are forced to live in appalling conditions.

"I hope shoppers will check the label on pork, bacon and sausages to make sure the meat they buy has been raised in good conditions.

"European wide guidelines on pig welfare would ensure that UK pig farmers were not at a competitive disadvantage and that shoppers across Europe could have access to meat reared in humane conditions.

"There has been extensive campaigning on the issue of battery chickens and intensive poultry production. Similar standards for pig farming are now long overdue."