Welfare Standards in Pig Farming and Transport

In this reflection, you will also find photographs I have taken of pigs in different conditions in front of the Leine-Fleisch GmbH slaughterhouse in Gleidingen (Germany). I began wondering if these conditions are still in compliance with the law. In this particular reflection, I will discuss the different photographs I have taken and the applicable legal requirements for the treatment of pigs.

Observations

All of the following photographs were taken by me on the 16thof November 2018, at Leine-Fleisch GmbH. The pigs were stuffed in trucks, parked right in front of the slaughterhouse, just waiting to be slaughtered.

Wounds

Bodies covered in wounds are a common sight in this industry, and nearly all the pigs in the trucks carried wounds in a different grade of seriousness. By law, it is allowed to transport and slaughter pigs as long as the wounds are not too serious, open, or bleeding. The injury of the pig in the right photograph is questionable since it was open and bleeding. Pigs with bloody wounds are considered as “non-transportable,” according to Eurogroup (2015).

In nature, pigs spend eight to eleven hours a day continually moving and examining their surroundings (Fuessler, 2012). The fact that, in farming, they spend most of their lifetimes in unnatural conditions, overcrowding has become common, and this leads to aggression (Shephard 2018). “When unfamiliar pigs are grouped, they fight to establish dominance in relationships. This natural behavior can, under farm conditions, escalate.’’(Camerlink 2017). The pigs in the trucks fought several times while they waited for their truck to reach its turn. Aggression increases the stress levels, weakens immunity, and slows the growth. Scotland's Rural College did a study on aggression with over 700 pigs. Even in relatively short fights of less than 15 minutes, maximum glucose levels were reached, and the bitten pigs showed a higher surface body temperature. These findings prove how exhausting these fights are for the pigs. “Recently, cases of deaths due to aggression in stable groups seem to be increasing.’’ Often, they do not have any space where they can hide and protect themselves from being bullied by other, stronger pigs (Camerlink 2017).

Space

In the national animal transport, welfare regulations require a space of 0.45 square meters per pig as a mandatory minimum for pigs weighing 100 kg. This is the approximate weight of an average pig at the age of seven to eight months. A group size of 5 sows or 15 hogs is allowed to be transported without separation (QS Qualität und Sicherheit GmbH 2018).

The pigs in the trucks had trouble to move, so they were stepping on each other. When fights broke out, they could not walk away from each other, and they merely jumped on other pigs. This led to panic breakouts with loud screeching. The regulations state that the pigs need to have enough space to lie down and to stand up in their natural posture. This would only work if all pigs stayed at their place.

As you can see in the photographs above, for most of them, there was no space to change their place when another pig was stepping on them or biting them. This particular transport came from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, which is a distance of around 400 km from Gleidingen, a journey of about 4 hours. In front of the slaughterhouse, they were waiting for over 2 hours. It is known that this distance is nearly luxurious in the context of animal transport, but even 6 hours under mentioned conditions is quite a long time.

Cut Tails

All the pigs in the transport had their tails cut. By EU laws, tail locking was forbidden since 1994. In reality, 100% of the times when I visited the slaughterhouse, all the pigs in all trucks had their tails cut. This happens because of an exemption in Article eight of Directive 2008/120/EG. Here it is stated that it is allowed to cut parts of the tail if other actions did not have any effect, but it is forbidden to do it routinely (Hempler 2012).

It is evident that this is a violation of the EU law, and it is well-known that the German government knows about this violation. The meat industry has powerful lobbies that usually bring up arguments like “the loss of thousands of jobs.” Because “other actions” would mean giving the pigs more space, creating more natural conditions, or creating the possibility of activity for the pigs, and that is less economically viable for this industry. Since tail biting is a behavioral disorder, which is much more common in facilities with unnatural conditions, like intensive farming (Bonde et al. 2005), the industry decided that cutting their tails is the way to go. Studies have shown that if the pigs are given a straw instead of a bare floor, the tail biting decreased from 26% to 5% (Zaludik 2002). But these actions cost more than cutting the tails of piglets without anesthesia. Agriculture is the second biggest employer in Germany, right after the car industry. The tighter the pigs are kept, the fewer employees are needed, and the more pigs can be raised and slaughtered for more profit. This means boredom and narrowness for the pigs, which makes the aggressive behavior rise, and that leads to fights and cannibalism among the pigs. Tail biting also brings economic loss because infections often develop, so the routine tail cutting is common practice (Dowideit 2011).

Conclusion

Even though some of the findings are questionable, none of them would probably be considered as illegitimate. This is not because everything that is being done to these animals is fine or because the pigs experience a high or decent level of welfare. It is because the meat lobby is so powerful and because they contribute significantly to the government budget that the government does not take action as it should. From the next year, animal protection groups in North-Rhine-Westphalia will no longer have the right to bring acts of animal cruelty before the court anymore. This is discussed in other federal states as well (WDR 2018). Instead of being grateful that these organizations are doing the job the government should be doing (protecting the laws they created), the government decided to preserve the meat lobby. That is why it is so important that consumers think for themselves and change their behavior, rather than rely on the

government.

Word count: 1090 words

References

1. Bonde, M., Baadsgard, N.P. & Sørensen, J.T. (2005). Documentation of animal health in organic pig herds: A case study. Available at: http://orgprints.org/5204/1/5204.pdf[accessed 08 Nov. 2018].

2. Camerlink, I. (2017). Why avoid aggression between pigs? 12 May. Available at: www.pigprogress.net/Health/Articles/2017/5/Why-avoid-aggression-between-pigs-132074E/[accessed 07 Nov. 2018].

3. Dowideit, A. (2011). Schwanz ab oder nicht? 04 Dec. Available at: https://www.welt.de/print/wams/wirtschaft/article13749708/Schwanz-ab-oder-nicht.html[accessed 08 Nov. 2018].

4. Eurogroup for Animals (2015). Praxis-Leitfaden zur Bestimmung der Transportfähigkeit von Schweinen. Available at:https://www.vion-zucht-und-nutzvieh.de/dl/Praxis-Leitfaden-zur-Bestimmung-der-Transportfaehigkeit-Schwein.pdf[accessed 07 Nov. 2018].

5. Fuessler, C. (2012). Das Schwein weiß um sein Ich. 05 Jun. Available at: www.zeit.de/wissen/umwelt/2012-05/unterschaetztes-tier-schwein[accessed 28 Nov. 2018].

6. Hempler, J. (2012). Schwänze kupieren Können wir darauf verzichten? Available at: https://www.lwk-niedersachsen.de/index.cfm?file=17848[accessed 07 Nov. 2018].

7. QS Qualität und Sicherheit GmbH (2018). Leitfaden Tiertransport. 01 Jan. Available at: lf_trans_frei_01012018_d.pdf [accessed 07 Nov. 2018].

8. Shephard, T. (2018). Footage revealing painful injuries on pigs raises questions over Red Tractor farm scheme. 09 Jun. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/footage-pigs-injuries-wounds-red-tractor-fir-tree-farm-animal-equality-tesco-a8391231.html[accessed 07 Nov. 2018].

9. WDR (2018). Verbandsklagerecht für Tierschützer vor dem Aus. 05 Dec. Available at: https://www1.wdr.de/nachrichten/landespolitik/tierschutz-klagerecht-im-umweltausschuss-100.html[accessed 08 Dec. 2018].

10. Zaludik, K. (2002). Bewertung praxisüblicher Mastschweinehaltungen in Nordrhein-Westfalen hinsichtlich der Tiergerechtheit. Available at: https://opus.uni-hohenheim.de/volltexte/2002/20/pdf/Diss_Zaludik_2002.pdf[accessed 08. Nov 2018].