Yesterday, Anna Firth MP for Southend West, attended and gave a speech at the Crate Escape reception in Parliament hosted by Mark Francois MP.
The Crate Escape is a campaign led by Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation (CAWF), Humane Society International/UK and Compassion in World Farming. It calls on the UK Government to end the use of farrowing crates.
Farrowing crates are one of the most severe forms of confinement experienced by farmed animals in any system. Every year over 200,000 mother pigs are kept in these small cages on UK farms, where they are confined for up to five weeks at a time.
Sows suffer when they are forced to spend much of their lives behind bars and a typical sow spends almost a quarter (22%) of her adult breeding life in a crate only slightly larger than she is.
New polling data shows that less than one in five people (19.8%) support the use of farrowing crates and only 15.5% would presently oppose a ban. The Survation poll, carried out in March 2023, also found that two-thirds of those polled would support the Government providing financial support to farmers to move to free-farrowing methods.
Several indoor free-farrowing systems that permit freedom of movement for the sow, whilst protecting piglets, are commercially available and in use in a number of countries, including the UK. Systems designed and produced in Britain are being used in the UK, USA and Canada.
Anna said,
“I am delighted to pledge my support for #TheCrateEscape, the campaign to end the use of farrowing crates in the UK. We must act now and end the suffering of the 200,000 sows forced to spend much of their breeding lives behind bars.”
“The British public have made it clear in recent polling that they do not support this practice and the UK Government should now introduce legislation that is more closely aligned with those views.”
Lorraine Platt, Co-Founder of Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation said,
“We were delighted to see Parliamentarians, NGOs, charities and campaigners come together as one voice in Parliament to call for an end to the use of farrowing crates in the UK.”
“The Crate Escape reception was a clear display of the strong public and political will to end the suffering 60% of our national pig herd endure every year.”
