Document type: Article published on The Pig Site
Author: Danielle J. Ufer
Preview: Several US States have passed and begun implementing farm animal welfare regulations over the past two decades. In the pork industry, regulations have focused on the common practice of using gestation crates for housing pregnant sows. In 2002, Florida passed a constitutional amendment effectively banning the practice for in-State operations, the first State to do so. Since 2002, an additional nine States have passed similar laws, either by ballot initiative or legislative action. The earliest of these laws only require that animals receive sufficient space to allow for covered behaviors such as lying down, standing up, fully extending limbs, and turning around freely. Later laws have more specific requirements.
For example, California's 2018 measure requires a minimum of 24 square feet of usable floorspace per breeding pig, well above the typical 14 square-foot industry standard. In addition to production restrictions, two of these States, California and Massachusetts, passed retail sales restrictions that prohibit the sale of pork originating from animals kept in gestation-crate systems or their direct offspring. [...]These rules are broadly applied in long-term production circumstances, while several laws allow short-term exceptions that include veterinary procedures, transportation, exhibition, and defined periods of the breeding cycle.
These regulations are concentrated in States with relatively small pork industries. With the exception of Michigan and Ohio, each of them has produced, on average, less than 1 percent of total U.S. pork production (in pounds) since 2018. Before 2017, the combined number of hogs produced in States with fully implemented production restrictions totaled, on average, less than 1 percent of the national herd. [...]Projected coverage of the total U.S. hog herd, and the breeding herd is expected to remain below 10 percent of hogs and pigs in each case under current State regulations by 2026. State laws cover a larger proportion of hog operations than of total production due to a greater number of small-scale operations in States with bans. By 2026, current State laws will cover approximately 19 percent of all hog operations and 20 percent of all hog breeding operations in the United States.
