DENVER (AP) — A recently released undercover video showing pigs being abused at a supplier to the world’s largest meat producer also highlights practices that are still common but slowly being changed in the pork industry.

The video shows pregnant female pigs confined to metal cages barely bigger than their bodies and piglets squealing while being castrated. Los Angeles-based Mercy for Animals released it in the hopes pushing Brazilian-based JBS to prohibit the practices.
Ten states have passed laws that either ban the use of or phase out the use of gestation crates or stalls, which are used on estimated 75 percent of pig farms in the United States. Among them is California, where voters this fall will be asked to ban the sale of pork from pigs confined to the crates or their offspring. Massachusetts voters passed a similar ban in 2016 that will take effect in 2022.

Gestation stalls are intended to minimize fighting among hierarchical sows and protect workers from the pregnant animals, which can weigh between 350 and 450 pounds, according to Sarah Crawford, assistant vice president of animal welfare for the National Pork Board in Des Moines, Iowa. She said the stalls are long enough for the animals to lie in, and research has shown some will choose a stall over living in a group. “The good thing is farmers have the choice to decide what fits best for their farm,” she said.

Temple Grandin, an animal science professor at Colorado State University and consultant on livestock treatment, said confined pregnant pigs lack the space to turn around, and compared the experience to humans having to spend their lives in an airline seat.