The Environment Committee was told that a ban on caging pregnant female pigs isn’t needed in Connecticut because farmers don’t use the inhumane tactic, which confines the sows tightly so, for among other reasons, they don’t roll over and crush a piglet or two while giving birth.
So the item was excised from a bill. Rep. Jack Hennessy, D-Bridgeport, revived the proposal in an amendment Friday. “The agriculture industry needs to move on and leave this barbaric practice,” Hennessy said. The amendment went down 15-9, but Sen. Ed Meyer, D-Guilford, co-chairman of the committee, said he wants assurances that the cages are not used in the state.
“If I’m still here and we find gestation crates in Connecticut, I think I’m going to ask to ban them outright,” Meyer said.