Gestation crates — individual metal stalls used to confine pregnant sows — prevent all natural movement and behaviour for weeks or months at a time, and have been banned in multiple jurisdictions due to clear welfare harms.
The gestation crate is one of the most thoroughly criticised practices in intensive animal farming — and the welfare science supporting that criticism is unambiguous. Confining a sow for the majority of her pregnancies in a space too small to turn around causes profound physical and psychological suffering. Bone deterioration, muscle loss, pressure sores, and the chronic frustration of being unable to perform any natural behaviour accumulate across multiple reproductive cycles. The phase-out of gestation crates in multiple jurisdictions demonstrates that alternative systems work at commercial scale. The remaining challenge is global enforcement and the elimination of gestation crates in supply chains serving markets without legal bans.