The SPCA is promising a nationwide consumer campaign against the pork industry, following the failure of pork producers to vote for an early phase-out of sow stalls.

"Caring consumers will be disgusted by the industry's decision to drag-out the process until 2012, and even then to allow pigs to continue to be incarcerated in these cruel stalls for the first four weeks of their pregnancies," said SPCA national president Peter Mason.

"Agriculture Minister Jim Sutton has clearly signalled his agreement with our call for a phase out of stalls by 2006. We applaud his call to the pork industry, at its Board's AGM on Tuesday, to take a good, long, hard look at itself and 'get real'.

"We would like to know why the industry insists on continuing to use sow stalls when 70% of its own farmers are coping perfectly well without them. It seems that a group of hard-line farmers are refusing to acknowledge the suffering of crated sows and thereby are bringing the rest of the industry into disrepute," says Mr Mason.

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