Gestation stalls confine pregnant sows in spaces too small to turn around for up to 16 weeks, causing severe physical and psychological welfare compromise in hundreds of millions of animals.
Sows in gestation stalls cannot turn around, root, or perform species-typical nesting behaviors. The chronic frustration of movement restriction, combined with social isolation, produces measurable psychological distress including abnormal repetitive behaviors. The scale of this welfare issue makes it among the most significant in modern agriculture.