Gestation crates confine pregnant sows in spaces so small they cannot turn around, causing significant welfare harms that have driven bans and voluntary phase-outs worldwide.
Sows in gestation crates are prevented from performing virtually every natural behavior: they cannot turn around, walk more than a step, socialize normally, or root. The physical and psychological impacts include muscle atrophy, leg weakness, skin sores from concrete floors, and severe frustration behaviors that indicate chronic stress. The behavioral evidence of suffering is so clear that even within the pork industry there is wide acknowledgment that gestation crates represent a welfare failure, driving voluntary phase-outs by major retailers.