Source:  MEATINGPLACE.COM, 12/15/10

The Humane Society of the United States is calling on pork producer Smithfield Foods to make good on its pledge to end the practice of breeding pigs in gestation crates.

At a press conference on Wednesday HSUS unveiled results of an undercover investigation it conducted last month at a Smithfield sow farm in Waverly, Va., in which a member of the animal welfare group documented the condition of sows while employed as a worker at the facility for 30 days.

HSUS posted a four-minute videotape of its findings on its web site that shows the sows in two- by seven-foot crates, some with bleeding gums from biting on the bars and other abrasions. The facility is run by Smithfield’s Murphy-Brown livestock production subsidiary.

Smithfield, in a statement released to Meatingplace, said it is continuing with efforts to eliminate gestation stalls from its sow farms.

“Even during the worst of the recent recession for this country and especially the difficult financial situation the hog industry faced, we maintained that commitment by continuing the engineering and planning processes during that time,” the company said.

HSUS contends Smithfield has not lived up to its 2007 pledge to phase out the crates in favor of group housing for the animals, even as companies including Cargill and Maxwell Foods are doing away with confinement crates, which are banned in the European Union and several U.S. states.

“The company is very profitable. It would be a great time for the company to recommit to its public pledge,” said HSUS Chief Executive Wayne Pacelle, who called on Smithfield to phase out the crates by 2017.

Smithfield said it has restarted a capital investment and is “actively in theprocess of converting a number of our company sow farms from individual gestation stalls to group housing arrangements for pregnant sows.”

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