Farm Animals

Farmed Pig Welfare Throughout the Life Cycle

A life cycle perspective on pig welfare identifies the highest-risk periods and the management interventions that protect welfare at each stage.

Key Facts

Neonatal period (0-3 days) has highest mortality risk from crushing and hypothermia
Weaning (3-4 weeks) involves simultaneous stressors of social mixing and diet change
Post-weaning period involves adjustment to novel environments and hierarchies
Growing and finishing periods involve space competition and respiratory disease risk
Transport and slaughter represent the final high-risk welfare period

Welfare Considerations

Understanding pig welfare across the full life cycle enables targeted management that addresses the highest-risk periods most effectively. Each life stage has different primary welfare threats requiring different management responses. A comprehensive welfare approach addresses neonatal care, weaning management, growing period conditions, and slaughter welfare as integrated components of lifetime welfare.

What You Can Do

Support welfare certification that addresses all life stages from birth to slaughter
Advocate for life cycle welfare assessment in auditing standards
Choose pork from producers with documented welfare management at all life stages