Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
other cats, parasites, diseases, and weather extremes? This
depends on what the owner values more: the ability of the
cat to fulfill its desire to express certain behaviors outdoors
or maintaining the safety of the cat from outdoor hazards.
Keeping the cat indoors minimizes the risk of injury, illness,
or death by outdoor factors, but some owners are willing to let
their cat face those risks in order to perform behaviors driven
by its natural instincts. Both types of owners have their cat's
“best interest” in mind; they just prioritize those interests
differently.
Hogs are perhaps one of the most difficult livestock spe-
cies to manage. The fences used for horses and cattle cannot
contain them, and they can turn a flat, verdant field into a
World War I no man's land in a short period of time. Sows
are particularly stubborn and sometimes require extra time
and effort to move them from point A to point B. Providing
medicine, assisting in birthing, and artificial insemination
(the norm) is much easier when sows are placed into steel
stalls with a slatted floor and sides so narrow the sow can-
not turn around. These are called gestation stalls when sows
are pregnant and not yet nursing piglets. Farrowing stalls
also are narrow and prevent the sow from turning around,
but provide piglets protection and room for movement to
nurse. The stalls allow the farmer to feed and treat the sow
individually, and it protects her from other sows. While they
provide certain benefits to the sow and farmer, the inability
to turn around or walk obviously frustrates the sow. If farm-
ers do not use gestation stalls, most will use a group-pen,
which is simply a barren pen with a few too many sows.
Each animal has the ability to move around, but is now at
the mercy of sharing resources with dominant sows. Are
they better off in the group-pen? That depends on whether
the injuries and competition for food outweigh the benefits
of greater mobility.
So once again, it will depend on what replaces the gesta-
tion stall and how that alternative better protects a sow from
