Since 2002, 11 states have restricted or banned gestation crates but Utah is not among them. Pork producers keep sows in these cramped crates throughout their lives, artificially impregnate them and take away their young to keep up with the demand for meat.
As of December 2021, Utah farms accounted for just over 1% of the total U.S. hog inventory, according to the National Pork Producers Council.
Devon Dear, institutional outreach manager for the group Animal Equality, said improvements have been made, but more needs to be done.
"We've seen some really big players in this industry move away from crates; McDonald's, Wendy's, Jack in the Box, Chipotle, Shake Shack, Panera Bread," Dear outlined. "These companies have significantly reduced or eliminated crates from their supply chain, so we know it can be done successfully."
Dear added around 60% of pigs in the U.S. are crated for their entire pregnancies and will spend, on average, 74% of their lives in crates. The report lists corporations like Denny's, Chick-fil-A, Dunkin' and KFC among others as not being aggressive enough in reducing their crate usage. Dear hopes the Farm Bill currently being debated in Congress can help advance the issue.
Dear argued despite what is happening with state and national-level legislative efforts, companies have what she called "a corporate responsibility," to treat animals in their supply chain humanely. She explained the use of crates among farming operations gained popularity in the 80s and 90s in an effort to maximize profits and efficiency.
She emphasized the practice comes with a hefty price tag, especially for the animals.
"When you have this many animals in one place, you're getting really high concentrations of feces. You're having all the environmental impacts of this," Dear pointed out. "Pigs produce a ton of waste and this has to be disposed of properly to not make nearby communities sick. The pigs in these barns are in distress and they are either, screaming or completely silent, neither which is a natural behavior."
Dear added as a result of the pigs being in crates, they experience much higher levels of stress which then translates to more antibiotic use and can lead to issues with run off into ground and surface water. One of the largest pork producers, Smithfield, which has operations in Utah and has confronted legal challenges, has stated they are phasing out the use of gestation crates.
