Gestation crates that prevent sows from turning around or performing basic natural behaviors cause significant welfare suffering, with mounting scientific and regulatory opposition to their use.
Gestation crate welfare science has produced among the clearest evidence of severe welfare compromise of any commercial farming system. The chronic inability to perform any natural behavior including turning around creates frustration states that manifest as repetitive stereotypic movements with no function other than coping with confinement. Bone density losses from disuse and muscle weakness from inability to exercise add physical welfare consequences to the psychological suffering of restricted confinement. Group housing systems address the most severe welfare problems while requiring more sophisticated management of aggression and feeding competition. Corporate and regulatory commitments to phase out gestation crates represent recognition that this system of confinement crosses a welfare threshold that cannot be justified.