Published 11/10/2012

Three not-so-little pigs were joined by two Compassion staff to deliver a postcard to the Italian state tourism office in central London.

Compassion's clear message was that Italy's failure to comply with the EU sow stall ban, which comes into force in January, will leave a bad taste in the mouths of tourists and damage Italy's reputation of fine cuisine.

However, staff at the office would not accept the postcard, saying we would have to get permission from Rome to deliver it to them in London.

Annamaria Pisapia, Head of Compassion's Italian operations, says: "We delivered this postcard today because we want Mr Gnudi, and the Government he's part of, to understand Italy's reputation in the eyes of other Europeans will be damaged by its behaviour over the sow stall ban.

"Italy is proud of its reputation for excellent cuisine but for those who eat meat a good dish should start with a life worth living for the animals involved in producing it."

For the majority of sows that produce the piglets used for meat in Italy, a life worth living is not a good phrase to describe the conditions they are living in. Sows are forced to spend almost their whole pregnancy in a sow stall, a cage so small that they are unable to turn around.

According to information obtained by Compassion, this situation is unlikely to change very much in the next three months, meaning Italy will be in breach of European law come January 2013.

Annamaria adds:"Visitors to Italy might think twice about sampling some of our famed produce if they know there are cruel and soon to be illegal systems in place on Italian pig farms"

Italy has already dented its reputation in this area by its abject failure to implement the EU barren battery cage ban, which came into force on 1 January this year."

Find out more about our campaign for the sow stall ban here.