“Carnival Corporation & plc supports the pork industry’s movement away from gestation crates and will work to ensure that our own pork supply is free of these cages by 2022,“ stated James Van Langen, vice president of management systems for Carnival Corporation & plc.

The Humane Society of the United States supports Carnival’s progress.

“Carnival knows that one thing people don’t leave at home when they go on vacation is their concern for animals,“ stated Matthew Prescott, food policy director for The HSUS.

“People simply don’t support the lifelong confinement of animals in cages so small they can’t even turn around, and it’s both an ethical decision and good business move for Carnival to recognise that.“

The similar announcements made recently by McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Oscar Mayer, Costco, Safeway, Kroger and more than 30 other leading food companies signal a reversal in a three-decade-old trend in the pork industry that leaves most breeding pigs confined day and night in gestation crates during their four-month pregnancy.