Handheld - sows

Some female pigs will be kept by the piggery to be used as breeding sows. Sows are impregnated multiple times a year and have several litters of piglets across their lifetime. Female pigs will be confined to mating stalls for up to a week while they are artificially inseminated by workers. When not confined to these narrow stalls, sows are kept in crowded group housing. Many of these pens have no drainage meaning that sows are forced to sleep and eat in a river of their own waste.