Today Eyes on Animals together with Dr. Kees Scheepens (outdoor organic Dutch pig farmer, veterinarian and ethologist) hosted an international conference on phasing out surgical pig castration in the Dutch Organic Pig Meat sector. Speakers from France, UK and Germany were present, as well as Dutch pig farmers and players in the Dutch organic pork chain and the Dierenbescherming. The purpose of the conference was to bring momentum to the goal of phasing out surgical pig castration on Dutch organic farms. Currently, there are only three organic Dutch pig farmers that do not surgically castrate out of about 60-70.
There are many more organic pig farmers that would like to stop castrating, but cannot as they cannot find a market in the Netherlands willing to buy their boars for the organic price. Dutch organic pork marketeers, such as De Groene Weg, Brand en Levie etc… up till now still want male piglets to be castrated, as they do not want to deal with any economic risk or extra trouble caused by boar taint. Intact males have a small risk (about 1.5 – 3%) of having boar taint, which consumers may find unpleasant and thus their carcasses are degraded and put into cured products.But this means at least 97 piglets per 100 are being put through the pain and trauma of surgical castration for no reason. In The Netherlands, sadly most organic piglets continue to be castrated under CO2 anaesthesia, which causes intense trauma to the piglets. The piglets are placed on their backs into a metal device, inhale CO2 (which burns the mucous membranes and causes a feeling of suffocation and takes 10-30 seconds to have effect) and wake up afterwards in shock and in pain with their testicles cut off. We do not feel that this treatment of pigs suits the philosophy or image of an organic sector, which otherwise is known for extra care and respect to its animals. We thus want to help the Dutch organic sector, andtheir whole pork chains, make the decision to phase out surgical castration. We would like them to give Dutch organic pig producers the choice,knowledge and wisdom to stop castrating their piglets like they do now.
A SHORT RESUME OF THE CONFERENCE:
Cooperl from France gave a talk about how they have been working for 10 years now to phase out castration in their entire pig meat production (conventional) and since 2023 have even completely phased out castration in their organic pig meat line! They raise 30,000 organic pigs per year, half of which are intact boars, and only have a boar taint rate of 1.5%. The UK largely got rid of surgical castration 25 years ago, and the larger respected organic labels there absolutely forbid it, such as The Soil Association (65% of the UK organic pig producers are registered with them. Boar taint is not an issue as they tend to slaughter the pigs at a slightly lighter weight. They even do not test for boar taint anymore !
Naturland in Germany, with the support of ProVieh and supermarket Rewe is striving for immunocastration (a simple vaccination that delays puberty in males) to be accepted into the organic sector. We are also in support of Improvac as another alternative to surgical castration. It prevents the development of boar taint and is not painful the way surgical castration is. Consumers wishing to eat pig meat should thus also accept it.
It was fantastic to hear about Van Loon’s decision last year to offer a market to a Dutch organic pig farm (father and son) that wanted to stop castrating their organic piglets. Best Star Meat (the specialty line from Van Loon) comes partly from this father-and-son managed pig farm where all male piglets are now kept intact and the husbandry is such that boars remain calm with each other and boar taint is extremely low. We greatly applaud Van Loon for this giving them this opportunity and starting Best Star meat organic line in the Netherlands which strives to offer a market to pig farmers that are doing things differently and better !
At the end of the conference we all agreed on a declaration, which participants will sign soon, as well as working together to get more Dutch organic pork companies to facilitate a market for intact boars. We all agree that we want way more organic pig farmers to have the choice and opportunity to stop surgically castrating their piglets as soon as their husbandry practices are ready to do so.
