The welfare science behind gestation crate bans and the transition to group housing for pregnant sows globally.
Gestation crates represent one of the most egregious welfare compromises in industrial animal agriculture: animals with complex social needs, significant intelligence, and documented capacity for suffering confined in spaces that prevent them from performing any natural behavior for months at a time. The welfare case against gestation crates is overwhelming and has driven significant regulatory and corporate change globally. The transition to group housing is not without challenges — social aggression management requires skill and appropriate facilities — but these challenges are solvable, and the welfare trade-offs strongly favor group housing managed well over crate confinement regardless of implementation difficulty.