UK supermarkets urged to stop selling Parma ham from EU caged sows
Animal welfare campaigners are calling on UK supermarkets to stop selling premium ham, including Parma, produced in “sow stalls” on EU farms.
An undercover investigation conducted by Compassion in World Farming (CWF), an animal welfare campaign group, found that sows are forced to spend many weeks in cages so small they can only stand up and lie down.
The campaign group’s footage from 16 farms across Italy, Spain, France and Poland shows the sows in cage systems, including those supplying premium Parma and Bayonne hams.
The cages have been banned in the UK since 1999 and in Sweden, but their limited use is still legal in the EU, allowing sows to be kept in cages from the weaning of the previous litter until the end of the sows’ first four weeks of pregnancy. Last June, the European Commission promised to phase out the use of cages in all animal farming across the EU by 2027.
CWF’s investigators alleged that sows on these farms were kept in the same extreme confinement as those on standard farms, and estimates that 85% of sows in the EU are kept in these conditions. Sows lie in their own excrement and urine, are unable to nurture their young, and resort to abnormal repetitive behaviour such as bar biting and chewing the air, the report alleged.
Sarah Moyes, CWF’s senior campaigns manager, said: “Compassion in World Farming would like to see all retailers, producers and food companies, make cage-free commitments for food production.” The group is also sending its findings to agriculture ministers across Europe and urging them to introduce the EU ban on caged farming without delay.
CWF said 8m branded Parma hams are produced in Italy every year, 36% of which are exported. Just under half of all exported Parma is sold within the
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