University Of Minnesota Swine Scientists Take On Animal Welfare

Earlier this year, Minnesota-based Hormel bowed to public pressure and said it would suspend purchases from a large supplier while investigating undercover video from the animal welfare group mercy Mercy for Animals showed sows in small gestation crates and routine animal husbandry practices like castration at a farm in Oklahoma.

“Confining highly intelligent and social pigs in cages so small the animals can’t even turn around for nearly their entire lives is blatant cruelty,” Nathan Runkle, the president of Mercy for Animals, said in a press release calling on Hormel to end its relationship with The Maschhoffs, an Illinois- based swine producer. “No animal should suffer a lifetime of physical violence and abuse.”

Austin, Minnesota-based Hormel said in a statement that it was suspending its purchases from The Maschhoffs pending a certified third-party investigation. “Animal stewardship, including the care and humane treatment of animals, is one of our most important values,” the processor said.

Maschhoff said it, too, was looking into the situation, Minnesota CBS Local reported.

The issues raised in the Mercy for Animals video illustrate the growing schism between consumers, who are increasingly disconnected from agriculture and may not fully understand how food is produced, and farmers, who increasingly use CAFOs — Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations — to meet consumer demand for meat, eggs and dairy products on a scale they can afford.

CAFOs allow farmers to raise as many animals or birds as possible in a small space. For sows, that can mean spending their entire 114-day pregnancies in small stalls with only enough room to stand or lie down.

The University of Minnesota’s West Central Research and Outreach Center is looking at alternatives that will help pork producers and suppliers respond to animal welfare concerns.

One alternative is to house pregnant sows in small groups with straw bedding.

“A lot of our effort has been to address societal concerns about pork production,” Lee Johnston, a professor of swine nutrition and management at U of M and director of operations at the research center, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “Those concerns are raised by consumers and market chains, and producers in turn are asking themselves and us how to respond to those market signals or satisfy those questions and demands.”

Other studies at the research center have focused on nutrition and feed additives, the behavior of pigs in confined spaces, growth rates, stress and other issues. The issues are important in Minnesota, the No. 2 pork production state in the nation, trailing only Iowa. There are about 3,300 pig farms in Minnesota, and 14 million pigs were raised in 2013.

Yuzhi Li, an expert in swine behavior and welfare at U of M, told the Star Tribune that activists and scientists take different approaches to animal welfare concerns. Activists are concerned with moral concerns, while scientists look at tje performance, behavior and health of the animals.

“We want to assess and evaluate animal welfare objectively, even though it’s a value issue,” she said. “We want to be sure animal welfare is safeguarded based on science and knowledge, rather than just saying that animal welfare is bad or good.”

For activists, the efforts may not be enough, according to Sherrie Webb, director of swine welfare at the National Pork Board.

“If the objective is that pigs should not be raised for food at all, then it’s hard to find common ground,” Webb told the Star Tribune. “But if the objective is to achieve good welfare and look for ways to continuously improve how we raise pigs, then we may be able to bridge that gap and address some of those concerns.”

Photo by Dave via Flickr Commons