In natural conditions, pigs spend a lot of time exploring their surroundings. Pigs are clean animals, they would never defecate or urinate in their sleeping quarters. Since they cannot sweat, they like to take a dip in the mud on hot days to cool off. As sociable creatures, they live in larger groups. Just before giving birth, the sow separates and builds a nest. She nurses her piglets in nature for around 15 weeks.
In factory farming, pigs can hardly pursue their natural behavior – on the contrary: their important basic needs such as personal hygiene, social behavior, exploration, foraging and nest building behavior are suppressed and hindered. The consequences are severe physical and mental damage.
Millions of pigs suffer in intensive fattening.
The Germans love pork – on the plate. Whether processed into sausage, chops or schnitzel: Pork is the most consumed meat in Germany. On average, every German eats around 35 kilograms per year¹, making it one of the global frontrunners along with Austria, Poland and Spain².
Around 27.7³ million pigs are in Germany’s stables. In order to meet the increasing demand for meat, 54 million pigs were slaughtered in Germany in 2017⁴. This makes Germany the largest pig producer in the European Union. But hardly a pig is ever lucky enough to stand on a green meadow. The total number of pig farmers is falling, but at the same time the farms are getting bigger. The majority of the pigs have to live in factory farms – facilities with more than 400 animals.
For reasons of cost, pig production is being organized more and more into production units. Specialized farms only keep sows for piglet production, the young animals are fattened in other farms before they are possibly taken to another barn for final fattening. A pig is therefore often loaded onto animal transport in the course of its life.