Albeit an extreme example, it is quite obvious that if those hogs had been freely roaming as HSUS would prefer that there would have been a fair number of dead pigs strewn across the countryside. I say, unless you are somebody with an advanced degree or decades of hands-on (successful) experience in a field then butt out. Nobody would expect a car mechanic to do their open-heart bypass - why are we letting non-farmers dictate farm policy?

Coming from someone who is an animal lover as well has someone who has experience in raising animals… I understand what the humane society is trying to get across… but what they don’t know is that farmers generally care a great deal about the animals that they raise for several reason… if you aren’t raising good healthy well taken care of stock then they will not yield a good price in market, which is what they get to not only provide a living for themselves and their families but what also provides everyone else with the meats that we enjoy eating so much, I mean think about it would you want to be putting food in your mouth that you know wasn’t properly taken care of medically and other wise?  As well as what the farmers need to build up more stock and to be able to continue this business.  So in a farmers eyes those pens are a way to monitor every one of the animals more closely so that they can make sure that each individual one is getting the medical attention that they need, and protecting them from other pigs, as well as weather conditions and other predators that may show up.  So the next time that you think about the food you are about to put in your mouth you should be grateful that the animal that’s life was taken so you could have the delicious meal had a good life because it was taken care of properly before it became the food that you are eating!

Why? Because there are idiots in every field who only care about cash.
I have farmers in my family who raise meat animals that think lots of farming techniques used today are not good livestock practice.

Just because the pigs lived thru a tornado in the crates does not mean they are a good farming practice! That stated idea makes this site look ignorant.

To answer Jake’s question—non-farmers are dictating policy because too many of our legislators are too lazy to learn the real issues & do the relevant work to find them out.

how ever you want to look at it..its horrible how these pigs are crated and treated…other farms out there ,let their’s roam free…plus ,i am sure they were scared to death…great life for them, dont you wish were as good?

All animal related business, animal owners, please understand one thing:

All Animal Rights activists believe that animals are not property under the law or otherwise. In the US animal are property, but ARs keep pushing laws that try and change this.

Animal Rights believe that animals should not be bought, sold, bred,consumed or owned. Therefore they pass laws to stop buying, selling, breeding and try to make it appear that people abuse animals day in and day out.

Animal abuse in the news conveniently corresponding with proposed laws (such as in CA and Ohio, see CA news for Winters CA in hog abuse and chicken killing) is NOT a coincidence.

Activists make sure these abuse events take place so they can *use it* as free advertising for their causes. Their cause of animals and proposed current legislation, and to increase Humane Officers with weapons who have no oversight in CA. Really.

When people “wonder” why abuse is suddenly happening, that is the answer. It is not a coincidence.

We have been onto Wayne and the rest for a long, long time. Now everyone needs to tell another friend.

Ok…  I love this site, and read it daily.  I agree with the vast majority of the things you’ve said so far, but this article is ridiculous.  Saying that gestation crates are being used in agriculture because they 1) prevent sow to sow aggression, 2) ensure proper feed rations and 3) save hogs from EF-4 tornados is preposterous.  I understand that you’re trying to make a point, and that’s why you say that “[t]his is admittedly an extreme example,” but following it with “it underscores how farm equipment like this is intended to protect livestock” is crazy.  Those crates were not intended to protect hogs from tornados—the fact that they did protect the animals is merely the flip side of those “unintended consequences” you mentioned at the beginning of the article.  I hate seeing articles like this because they’re something the animal rights movement can (and will) point to as agriculture just making up reasons to justify their actions—when in truth, there is actual legitimate scientific research behind the use of crates.

H$U$ will argue that the pigs shouldn’t be there at all. Trust me, they will have nothing positive to say if anything at all

Storm shelters work for humans but they aren’t a fun place to be for most of us!  Storm shelters are simply NOT a feasible option for many animals; less so for livestock.

You can bet your boots that wild animals died in that storm.  It’s just nature.  Livestock owners DO care but they are also pragmatic and practical; something we probably all should do better in managing our own lives.  We always need to be listening to the people who actual do something successfully before trying any backseat driving, let alone hopping in the driver’s seat or even directing the driver.

Woo Hoo for the survivor pigs and their owner!

Lisa,
How do you feel you can speak to the care of these animals just from looking at a picture? That’s bizarre to me. That would be like me saying a person in a wheelchair is being abused because they have to stay in a small space and cant do what they might want to do. Really the individual care and attention allows the earliest possible help if any animal develops a problem. Also, the aggressive pigs are a real problem as pigs become cannibalistic. I have family members who have been raising pigs for over 80 years and we know because we have seen it and we know what strategies to use to prevent it.
Animals in nature do operate under the survival of the fittest, and that means that the fittest fight with the others so they get what they want.

CLEARLY the pigs have absolutely NO ROOM to move or turn around. CLEARLY the tornada affected them. They were exposed to the terrible winds and debris landed all over them, and they could not escape that at all because they are locked in outdoor prison cells. This in inhumane no matter how you look at it.

Cindie you do understand that those “outdoor prison cells” used to be inside the barn, right?

Cindie
  If you pay more for your food then farmers would be able to provide even better living accommodations for their animals.  As farmers we do the best we can with what we are given.  Also, the debris did not land on them.  It landed ON the pens that they are in.  If they were out in the open they would have been more exposed to the wind, and the debris would have landed ON them and KILLED them.  I know this is true because I have seen it happen.  You can choose to be ignorant if you want, but this is how things work in the real world.  I may not totally agree with everything we do in agriculture, but I do know why things are done the way they are done.  So, until something better comes along this is the way it is.  If you don’t like it you can either choose to help find a BETTER alternative, or you can choose to complain and be just another ignorant fool.

Take it from another hog producer- those are BRED sows, and there is so much potential that has been protected there. There are probably 50 or 60 sows in that barn x 15 piglets/ sow- what a blessing!!! We will have this humane or not debate forever- but to see the potential of my operation protected like that - it make me wish all my sows could be protected like that. And YES, sows do get aggressive- try seeing ewhen one farrows in a pen of others- the other will eat those piglets as they come out!!!

Cindie read this
  Those hogs weren’t hit with debrie.
they didn’t get tormatised it happened so fast they didn’t know what happend. If I know hogs they didn’t think anything about it five mins. after it happend.so poor hogs boo hoo.

The argument being used by all the little whiny naysayers posting in this topic seems to boil down to, “Oh the poor piggie-wiggies were all scardie-dardied because they couldn’t run away from the ookie poo-poos torndado, (caused by the Bush Administration), so the farrowing crates are (BOOGA-BOOGA!!!!!) Amnie-wamnie-mamnie-mal aboosie-woosie!!!! (BOO-HOO-HOO-HOO-HOO!!!!!!!!!!!)”.

What a good life this pigs have! They can not even turn around. It is not for their protection, it is for the convienience of the farmer. Those crates will be autlawed in Europe because the inhumane. Lets be honest, this is factoryfarming for the profit of the farmer. Most people dont care where their food comes from and how it was produced. Just imagine you have to live in such a crate.

Admittedly, i am a Animal Rights “extremist”.  I come to this site to see what the “other side” has to say, but this article is just crazy and i don’t understand the arguments in the comments section.

Until you walk in a farmer’s shoes shut up!!

In my opinion gestation crates are a necessary part of large-scale hog farming. As a long time member of 4H and someone who lives on a hog farm using these types of crates, I can say that they do a good job of keeping sows safe. We keep our 4H hogs in a separate area where they can interact with each other and on several occasions I have seen them display aggressive behavior with one another. If the amount of hogs we raise were all free range and not kept in these types of crates, it would be absolute chaos.

I am a small-family farmer, my real job that actually is profitable is something else.  As an experiment I let both of the 2 sows I keep have their litters in the 5 acres I let them roam on, instead of the crate which is in a shed.  The first sow only crushed 3 babies and actually successfully raised the rest.  The second sow, a great producer bore a large litter, and managed to crush at least 10 within the first 2 nights.  The rest died of exposure (this was in July!! but the nights drop down into the low 70s,high 60s which as most people that raise hogs know, is too cool.  The last 3 I brought in and watched them die the following day.  I personally would like to never see the 3/4 lose happen again. Actually, I am tired of the losing battle with animal control people.  I am slowly getting rid of all my animals and spending my money on more important things like ski trips that benefit nobody but myself. As a result, the backwards county I live in will not be receiving the $3000-$6000 I have been spending on feed and other farming supplies, the 4H and FFA kids and others buy their livestock somewhere else, other growers,counties, or not at all.  Economically the county is undermining itself.

Before you guys start complaining because it is “inhumane”, you guys should at least learn about hog breeding, all of you people who are against it don’t even know what hog breeding is like. You guys are talking out of IGNORANCE. Before you even open your mouth and complain go to a farm and learn about hog breeding!!

Hogs have been breeding without crates for centuries… Before you tell us tonlearn about farming how about u learn about nature