The Times, January 29, 2003
Why all our pigs are having a ball
Farmers throughout the country have 90 days to put a toy in every pigsty or face up to three months in jail. The new ruling from Brussels, which is to become law in Britain next week, is to keep pigs happy and prevent them chewing each other. Official instructions to farmers are to give pigs "environmental enrichment" by providing "manipulable material", which the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs last night defined as balls. A spokesman said: "We mean footballs and basketballs. Farmers may also need to change the balls so the pigs don't get tired with the same one. Different coloured ones will do..."
The truth
The article concerning the welfare of pigs was entirely misleading. There is no EU legislation that requires farmers to place toys in pigsties.
Two recently adopted directives, set to be implemented into UK law, require that pigs have access to materials such as straw, hay, wood, and sawdust to improve their welfare, but there is categorically no mention of toys anywhere in the legislation. If the UK government, via its implementing measures, wishes to impose such a rule on farmers this decision remains up to them.
The directive on pig welfare, which was adopted in 2001 and comes into force in January 2003, does foresee that pigs should have access to rooting material. This is based on scientific advice, showing that boredom in pigs could lead them to harm themselves and other pigs. The implementing directive states that pigs must have permanent access to a sufficient quantity of material to enable proper investigation and manipulation activities. This material could include straw, hay, wood, sawdust, mushroom compost, peat or a mixture of these. There is no mention of toys.
