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Safeway says it intends to stop buying pork from suppliers that confine pregnant sows in narrow metal crates.
The nation's second-largest grocery chain joins McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's in phasing out pork that comes from pigs raised in so-called gestation stalls, which prevent pigs from turning around, moving forward or back, or lying down comfortably for most of their short lives. Animal welfare advocates have pushed for open stalls.
"It is Safeway's goal to have a gestation stall-free supply chain," Brian Dowling, Safeway's vice president of public affairs, said in a joint news release with the Humane Society of the United States. "With that in mind, the company is formulating plans to determine how it can reach that goal."
The company did not provide a target date, noting that it "has substantially increased the quantity of pork it buys from producers that have made commitments to decreasing gestation stalls in their breeding facilities" during the past several years.
The Humane Society praised the move.
"Safeway's decision to move away from gestation crates is welcome and encouraging news," said Wayne Pacelle, the head of the HSUS. "Given the scope and quantity of pork products sold by Safeway, this announcement is an important step in addressing animal welfare in the company's supply chain."
The HSUS released a report in January on welfare issues involving the crates.
Mercy For Animals documented suffering and mistreatment of pigs last year in an undercover investigation at a major Safeway supplier in Iowa, Select Farms. The organization said it was "cautiously optimistic" about the move away from gestation crates, which it called "one of the worst forms of institutionalized animal abuse in existence."
"By speaking out against these inherently cruel crates, Safeway is taking a positive step forward in improving animal welfare," said Nathan Runkle, executive director of Mercy For Animals. "We hope this announcement is more than PR hogwash and that Safeway acts quickly to remove these cruel confinement systems from its supply chain to spare millions of animals horrific misery and suffering."
The group called on Walmart, Kroger and Costco to follow Safeway's lead. The Compass Group, the world's largest contract food-service company, has stopped using pork raised in the crates. Pork giant Hormel announced in February that it, too, was ending the practice.
The use of gestation crates has been banned in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Maine, Michigan, Ohio, Oregon and the European Union.
