Activists from Mercy For Animals India Foundation and People For Animals dressed in pig and chicken costumes displayed placards reading, “Freedom for All”, in a call to ban gestation crates for pigs and battery cages for laying hens.
Just two feet wide and seven feet long, gestation crates are metal enclosures that confine pigs used for breeding during their four-month pregnancies. Battery cages—barren wire enclosures kept in stacks—confine most hens in the egg industry. Both crates and cages are extremely cruel and prevent animals from performing many natural behaviours that are essential to their physical and mental well-being.
Gestation crates and battery cages violate Section 11(1)(e) of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, which states that anyone who “keeps or confines any animal in any cage or other receptacle which does not measure sufficiently in height, length and breadth to permit the animal a reasonable opportunity for movement” is punishable by fine for a first offence and by fine and possible imprisonment for a subsequent offence.
Mercy For Animals India Foundation and People For Animals are campaigning to end egregious cruelty to pigs. Join us in urging the government to ban gestation crates for pregnant pigs and farrowing crates for nursing pigs.
