User:Kkirkham/sandbox

Pregnant sows
Smithfield announced in 2007 that they would phase out the use of gestation crates on their company-owned farms by 2017. These stalls house a pregnant sow individually during her pregnancy, and have come under criticism by animal activist groups as well as many supermarket and food service chains because they do not allow the animal to turn around. In June 2009, the company said they would not meet their projected timeline for the conversioon because of operating losses resulting from the economic recession[16], but then announced in December of 2011 (Source: http://smithfieldcommitments.com/whats-happening-now/core-reporting-areas/animal-care/sow-stall-conversion-process-update/) that they would meet their original goal of completion by 2017.