Irene Campbell

I fully agree with my hon. Friend, and I will cover that later in the debate. I must declare an interest: I hosted a drop-in event on farrowing crates earlier this month with Humane World for Animals UK. There was great interest in that event, and I am delighted to say that the turnout among Members was high. The event raised awareness of the conditions in which sows are kept on some British pig farms. We had on display a replica life-size crate with a life-size animated pig to bring that to life, and to let people see how small the farrowing crate and confinement conditions are. These crates are barred, metal and often barren, and their cramped and unhygienic conditions can lead to disease and the overuse of antibiotics. A poll by Humane World for Animals found that about 73% of people in the UK had either never heard of farrowing crates or did not know very much about them. Hopefully, today’s debate will change that. About 200,000 sows every year spend nearly a quarter of their lives in these farrowing stalls, which are so small that they cannot even turn around, nestle their piglets or express natural behaviours, such as rooting or nest-building. The crates prevent the sow from getting away from the piglets when they start biting her teats, so the piglets’ teeth are often ground down or clipped, which seems a very cruel practice. The piglets are then removed when they are three to four weeks old, compared with how it would be in the wild, where a sow would feed piglets for up to 11 to 13 weeks. After a couple of weeks, the sow is inseminated again. Sows are likely to have two litters a year of 10 to 12 piglets and a breeding lifespan of three years before they are sold for slaughter, which is really quite miserable. On a positive note, though, free farrowing systems exist, where sows are not confined during farrowing and lactation. These can allow the expression of nest-building behaviour, as well as free movement. Such systems make up about 40% of the industry. Group systems of zero confinement allow those expressions and free movement, and they can increase sows’ social interactions. Although it is suggested that zero-confinement systems can increase crushing incidents, research has indicated that there is little difference in piglet mortality between those housed in loose farrowing systems and those in farrowing crates. The number of piglets crushed was higher in loose farrowing, but the number of piglets dying from other causes was higher in crates, so the mortality of piglets is related to other factors, such as size at birth, age of sow and season. One study from Denmark demonstrated that the factors that contributed to pre-weaning death in piglets were: being born into a litter with one or more stillborn litter mates; the number of litters farrowed by the sow; and possibly the time of the year.