Assam Issues Circular Against Confining Mother Pigs to Crates Following PETA India Appeal

For Immediate Release:

12 April 2023

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Guwahati – Following an appeal from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India to prohibit the manufacture, sale, and use of gestation and farrowing crates in pig farming, the director of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary, Government of Assam, has issued a circular to joint directors and animal husbandry and veterinary officers of all districts, mandating compliance with the group’s request within their jurisdictions.

The circular cites Section 11(1)(e) of The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, which prohibits the confinement of any animal to a receptacle that fails to offer a reasonable opportunity for movement, such as gestation and farrowing crates. It also underlines the problematic restriction of mother pigs and their piglets within these metal crates, which leaves the mother unable to turn around or even stand up without difficulty. Per the circular, the crates also force pigs to live amid their own faeces and urine, resulting in sores and infections.

Confining animals in this way is illegal, a position confirmed by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research’s National Research Centre on Pig and is further reiterated in the said circular. Assam, home to the highest population of pigs in the country, is the latest of 20 states and union territories to issue directions against the housing of pigs in these contraptions. Other governments that have issued circulars include Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.

The copy of the circular from the director of Assam’s Animal Husbandry & Veterinary, is available upon request.

“PETA India commends Assam for standing up for countless pigs and sparing them the severe cruelty of such crates,” says PETA India Advocacy Officer Farhat Ul Ain. “Pigs are intelligent, protective mothers who form bonds with their young when unrestricted. Their confinement to these cramped crates and the ultimate separation from their piglets causes them tremendous agony and grief. Pigs are also transported in cramped trucks to slaughterhouses, where they are stabbed to death in the chest, frequently after being hit over the head with a hammer. PETA India reminds everyone that they can help pigs and other animals by refusing to eat them.”

Gestation crates (aka “sow stalls”) are metal cages, essentially the size of a pig, with concrete or slatted floors. In them, pigs are unable to turn around or even stand up without difficulty. These devices confine pregnant pigs, who are typically transferred to farrowing crates to give birth and are kept in them until their piglets are taken away. Farrowing crates are fundamentally the same as gestation crates, except that they contain small side compartments for piglets.

Gestation and farrowing crates deny mother pigs everything that’s natural and important to them, such as opportunities to forage, build a nest for their young, socialise with other pigs, and regulate their body temperature (such as by wallowing in mud). The extreme stress and frustration caused by this severe confinement result in abnormal behaviour, such as continually biting at the enclosure bars or “chewing” the air.

PETA India – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way” – notes that pigs are intelligent, social animals who should not be exploited. For more information, please visit PETAIndia.com or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

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