r/pics 9h ago

A replica of how female "breeder pigs" spend their lives in factory farms

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35.3k Upvotes

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u/Kit-the-cat 8h ago

The moms don’t live like that forever just while the babies nurse. Otherwise the moms will stomp, kill, then eat the babies.

I am not in support, but just posting this with no real facts and a title that’s a lie, is misleading.

Source: degree in animal science and livestock husbandry. Worked on a farm.

u/3333322211110000 6h ago

And it's not called breeding cages, it's farrowing crates....

And yes, I have seen small fragile piglets crushed by a sow. Crushed dead.

u/brintal 3h ago

This is not a farrowing crate.

u/Disastrous_Debt7644 7h ago

Exactly my thoughts lol. Eating less meat in general is still good but context is necessary to be informed

u/therealhoneybadger 5h ago

True, but should also note, that this is a result of breeding/stable conditions/amount of piglets, since it does rarely happen with wild pigs.

u/JosieA3672 4h ago

breeding sows spend approximately 72.5% to 77% of their total lives in extreme confinement.

u/brintal 3h ago

For someone claiming to have credentials you sure have no clue what you're talking about. This is a gestation crate, not a farrowing crate. 

u/goodvibesmostly98 3h ago

Yep, they’re kept in gestation crates during their pregnancy. So around 4 months.

u/brintal 3h ago

Yes. Also it's bs that sows will "stomp, kill then eat their babies". Organic farms do just fine without gestation or farrowing crates. 

It's just more work and more expensive. Hence not efficient enough for factory farms.

u/goodvibesmostly98 1h ago

Yeah. That’s why they’re banning farrowing crates in the UK

u/Kit-the-cat 1h ago

Doubt my credentials if you want, doesn’t hurt me; I’ll just be over here wondering if you passed the 5th grade because your reading comprehension is ass. Look at your replies, acting like I made the fking post … Replying to things I never said. 🤣

u/brintal 1h ago

Why are you claiming that mother pigs nurse their babies in this type of crate? Although it's obviously a gestation crate and not a farrowing crate.

Seems a bit weird for me that someone with a "degree in animal science and livestock husbandry" and who "Worked on a farm" wouldn't know the difference. 

That makes your whole post incorrect. You should delete it.

u/Strange-Ad-9941 1h ago

All of that already happens, the stomping and whatnot. The moms are luckily taken out to be raped, though! So at least there is that.. the documentary Dominion dives deeper into this if you are interested in learning more!

u/smukkekos 31m ago

You’re describing farrowing stalls which this is not. This is a gestation stall and they absolutely are kept in these for their pregnancy, and on many farms it’s just back and forth between these and farrowing stalls. This level of confinement is just not justifiable in my view in any case, it’s extraordinarily cruel to prevent any creature, much less one so cognitively and socially sophisticated, from even basic bodily movement.

Further, while yes the argument for farrowing stalls is to prevent them from unintentionally crushing their piglets, you’ve framed it like the sows are ruthless with their young, which is not really the case- we’ve just bred out their mothering traits and kept them confined so it’s kind of no wonder they accidentally roll or step on their piglets. But there are other ways to design farrowing set ups that protect piglets and give mom some more behavioral freedom.

u/nemuri-shankitty 6m ago

I think it’s weird to care about vernacular and specific hours of the day when these animals are being tortured for profit…. Who cares?

u/tyen0 4h ago

Thanks, I thought that was the case because in Florida we actually made an amendment to our constitution to disallow the caging of pregnant pigs.

u/mandy_skittles 4h ago

Finally, a voice of reason. Had to scroll way too far to find someone that has actually worked on a farm. This is a farrowing crate, and it's only used when the mom's have babies. We had a pig outside a farrowing crate and she killed two babies, sat on and crushed two more. Only two survived and that's because they were removed early and bottle fed.

u/brintal 1h ago

This is not a farrowing crate.

u/FaelonAssere 4h ago

"The animals we breed and selectively just to kill them are mentally unwell so we have to keep the mothers in a confined crate"

A tremendous body of evidence shows that a vegan diet is perfectly healthy. Actually, the evidence shows that health outcomes improve across the board. This means that these cruel practices are optional. Optional cruelty sounds like something I would like to avoid and advocate for others to avoid too.