McDonald's Corp. announced Wednesday that it will require its U.S. pork suppliers to submit plans to phase out individual stalls for the pigs by May, a decision supported by the Humane Society of the United States.
"There are alternatives that we think are better for the welfare of sows," said Dan Gorsky, senior vice president of McDonald's North America Supply Chain Management, in a statement. "McDonald's wants to see the end of sow confinement in gestation stalls in our supply chain."
The decision came after years of talks between McDonald's and the Humane Society and from the fast-food chain's analysis of how the stalls affect the animals, said Josh Balk, a spokesman for the Humane Society.
Balk said sows spend a majority of their lives confined in 2-by-7-foot metal cages, which give them little room to move around and are considered inhumane by animal rights groups.
He said the use of gestation stalls by pork suppliers is banned in the European Union and in eight U.S. states, including Florida.
"It's cruel and inhumane to permanently confine an animal in a cage so cramped she can't even turn around," he said.
Balk said an alternative to gestation stalls would be to move pregnant sows to open pen houses.
"Pigs are built to move, and in order to have proper welfare they should at least be able to walk around and turn around and socialize with other pigs," he said.
The pork industry does not see McDonald's decision in the same light as the Human Society.
Dave Warner, a spokesman for the National Pork Producers Council, said moving sows from stalls to pens has its disadvantages.
"If you put 10 pregnant sows in a room or pen, they get mean," he said. "They will attack each other and bite in places where, as a sow, you really wouldn't want to get bitten."
Sows in open pens also pose a worker-safety issue, he added.
Sam Kowalczyk, a 21-year-old nuclear engineering junior, said he's concerned with the issue of sanitation if sows are moved from individual stalls to group pens.
"I'm all for McDonald's exercising their decision of where they get their food from," he said. "As long as it's safe."
Hunter Nichols, a 20-year-old English sophomore, studies while he eats at the McDonald's at 201 NW 13th St. on Tuesday afternoon.
