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  • Pigs and Sows

Pigs and Sows

  • Pigs and Sows

While everyone is familiar with pigs, few understand their true nature.

Or that their cognitive abilities are often likened to those of dogs? They can even recognize human faces!

In a 2015 study, two Vietnamese pigs demonstrated their ability to associate gestures and words with objects and actions.1 This is similar to what dogs do when they hear the word “ball” and understand what it means, or when they respond to commands like “sit” or “stay.”

Believe it or not, pigs can even play video games. In a study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, scientists taught four pigs how to manipulate the joystick of an arcade game to earn rewards.2 Even when the treat dispenser malfunctioned, Hamlet, Omelette, Ebony and Ivory continued playing, encouraged by the researchers. In fact, the pigs’ performance was significantly above chance, suggesting they grasped the connection between the joystick and the movement of the cursor on the screen.

Pigs are also capable of emotional contagion, meaning they can sense and share the emotions of other pigs around them. This finding is particularly relevant, since these animals are often raised, transported and slaughtered in large groups.

Did you know?

Pigs were domesticated around 8,000 years ago. Their ancestor, the wild boar (Sus scrofa), is a sociable and intelligent animal who lives in groups on a vast territory and travels dozens of kilometers every day. Domesticated pigs have retained several traits from their wild ancestor, including their sociable and intelligent nature.

Fig. 1 A family of wild boars.

The life of pigs raised for consumption in Quebec

In Quebec, approximately 7.1 million pigs and sows are raised each year for slaughter.3 At the moment, pigs and other farmed animals are excluded from the basic protections of the Animal Welfare and Safety Act. This is what the typical life of pigs in the Quebec pork industry looks like:

Piglets are weaned at the age of 3 to 4 weeks. If destined for fattening, they are sent to a “finisher” where they live in groups with other piglets of the same age for 18 weeks before being transported to the slaughterhouse.4 Pigs have a lifespan of about 15 to 20 years.

Fig. 2 Curious piglets on a windowless farm in Canada.
A female piglet destined to become a breeding sow will go to a “breeder” where, from the age of 1, she will have an average of 2.5 litters per year. The sow will spend most of her life in a gestation cage or a farrowing cage, both of which are barely larger than her body.

These cages prevent the sow from expressing her most basic natural behaviours, such as moving around, exploring her environment, searching for food, interacting normally with her peers, building a nest before farrowing, and so on. This deprivation causes not only frustration and stress, but also physical damage: sows confined in these cages suffer more from leg weakness and lameness due to lack of physical activity. Shoulder injuries and urinary and vaginal infections are also common.

Fig. 3 Sows in gestation crates, Quebec.
Fig. 4 Young pigs crammed into a pen, Canada.

The higher an individual’s cognitive abilities, the greater their needs for stimulation and enrichment. As intelligent and curious creatures, pigs can quickly become bored when they don’t have opportunities to explore new things in their environment and root around in the soil. Despite having been domesticated for thousands of years, pigs have kept many of the natural behaviours of their ancestors, wild boars, and are highly driven to express them.5 Farmed pigs will always have the instinct to express natural behaviours such as searching for food, wallowing in mud to regulate their body temperature, building nests and raising their babies in a family. The farming environment rarely allows them to fulfil these needs, often leading these animals to develop aggressive behaviours or stereotypies—repetitive behaviours without apparent function—such as biting the ears, flanks or tails of other pigs, chewing on cage bars and sham-chewing (continuous chewing without the presence of food in the mouth).

Current industry practices

While there is a Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Pigs6, it does not carry the force of law in Quebec. Worse, this code permits several practices that are incompatible with animal welfare.

Firstly, male piglets are typically castrated a few days after birth. The farmer or their employee makes an incision in the scrotum of the piglet and then removes the testicles. The Code of Practice allows for castration without anesthesia on piglets under 10 days old, and most of them are indeed castrated before reaching this age.7 However, the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) considers this procedure painful regardless of age and advocates for the use of analgesia and anesthesia. The CVMA also states that there are alternatives to surgical castration of piglets, such as immunocastration8 and the marketing of intact male pigs, as is done in Europe.

Anesthesia suppresses the ability to feel. It can be local or general.
Analgesia eliminates or mitigates pain without suppressing the ability to feel.

Fig. 5 Piglets crammed into a pen on a large hog farm, Quebec.

Secondly, the Code of Practice permits other common practices, such as tail docking and teeth clipping, as well as ear tattooing, ear notching and ear tagging for identification purposes. These procedures are painful and stressful for the animals undergoing them.

Note that during handling or movement, pigs can be directed with electric prods. Also, the Code allows for killing by blunt trauma as a method of “euthanasia” for piglets weighing 9 kg or less. Blunt trauma is administered by holding piglets by the legs and then striking the top of their cranium firmly and deliberately against the floor or another flat hard surface, or by delivering a quick and powerful blow to the top of the piglet’s skull using a blunt object.

Fig. 6 Pigs crammed together at the entrance of a slaughterhouse, Ontario.
Fig. 7 A trembling piglet dying on the floor of a farm, Quebec.
None of these practices would be permitted by law if applied to a dog or cat

Since 2014, plans for a shift toward group housing for sows have been included in the Code of Practice. Initially, the deadline was set for 2024, but the pork industry requested an extension until 2029. This transition period is far too long for sows, which may be confined to gestation and farrowing cages for most of their lives.

However, the Code amendment committee could not reach an agreement on this extension. The 2014 Code, and any deadlines it provides, thus stands as the only valid version of the Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Pigs until such time as a complete amendment or revision of it is agreed upon as part of the process led by the National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC). 

However, according to their own forecasts, producers are unlikely to meet the 2024 deadline. Moreover, the Government of Québec’s website states that farmers have until 2029 to comply with NFACC requirements—as if the extension had been granted.3

While the pork sector claims to enforce full adherence to the Code of Practice on its producers, this is clearly not the case here.

Elsewhere in the world

Laws governing the farming of animals for consumption vary greatly from one country to another. Some countries, such as the UK and Ireland, have outright banned pig castration.9 In Norway, it must be performed under local anesthesia by a veterinarian. In Switzerland and the Netherlands, castration requires general anesthesia.10

Tail docking is prohibited in certain countries (Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Lithuania and Finland).11

The duration of confinement for sows in gestation crates is limited to a maximum of 4 weeks in the European Union, 10 days in Switzerland, 8 days in the UK and 4 days in the Netherlands. Confinement in this type of cage is banned at all times in a dozen U.S. states, including Arizona12, California13, Florida14 and Rhode Island.15

What you can do to help pigs and sows

Here are a few ways you can help pigs and sows:

Sign to protect them. If you haven’t already done so, we encourage you to sign our manifesto asking for a regulatory framework governing the living conditions of pigs and other farmed animals in Quebec, endorsed by nearly 40 well-known figures in Quebec. This manifesto aims to amend laws so that these animals can finally receive the protections they deserve.

Learn more about pigs by listening to the episode Les porcs aiment-ils jouer? from our French-Language podcast Au nom des animaux. It is also available on Google Podcasts, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. And encourage your friends and family to listen to it!

Another way to help change the living conditions of animals like pigs is to write to your Member of the National Assembly.

The most effective way to help pigs is to reduce or eliminate your consumption of pork products. This way, you tackle the problem at its source. You can also advocate for the adoption of policies that promote a sustainable food transition.

Fig. 8 A rescued pig in a chamomile field at Farm Sanctuary, Watkins Glen, New York, USA.

What the Montreal SPCA is doing to protect pigs and sows

We regularly speak out in the media in defence of animals, including pigs. Watch this Radio-Canada report on pig farming, featuring Sophie Gaillard, our Director of Animal Advocacy, Legal and Government Affairs. The report points out that even when facilities have been upgraded in line with the latest recommendations, they are still inadequate when it comes to the comfort and stimulation needs of these highly intelligent and sensitive animals.

The SPCA sometimes takes in surrendered or stray pigs. Our teams provide them with the care they need before entrusting them to sanctuaries where they can lead a good life and express normal pig behaviour.

Learn more about each of these species

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Photo credits:

  • Banner photo: © Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals Media
  • Fig. 1 Photography: © CrizzlDizzl/Pixabay
  • Fig. 2 Photography: © Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals Media
  • Fig. 3 Photography: © Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals Media
  • Fig. 4 Photography: © Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals Media
  • Fig. 5 Photography: © Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals Media
  • Fig. 6 Photography: © Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals Media
  • Fig. 7 Photography: © Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals Media
  • Fig. 8 Photography: © Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals Media

Sources: 

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