• Be a compassionate shopper.
• Take action — call for an end to cruel sow stalls in your state.
• Become a Frontliner for Animals by pledging a monthly gift to help animals in need.

To give us the best possible start in life, Mother Nature created a special connection between mother and baby. This is of course not unique to humans — many animals express love and affection towards their kin and develop strong connections among family members also.

Pigs are one such animal. Scientists say that pigs are one of the most intelligent species outside the primate family — even smarter than dogs! Yet most of these highly sensitive and social animals are confined inside factory farms where even their most basic natural behaviours are denied.

Locked in tiny metal crates where they are unable to lie down properly or even turn around, hundreds of thousands of mother pigs in Australian factory farms suffer endlessly from boredom, stress and fear. For the sake of pork, bacon and ham, these animals are treated like 'breeding machines'. They cannot properly nurture their young and are helpless to protect their babies from having their tails painfully sliced off (through bone), or having their teeth cut — routine procedures that are conducted without any pain relief.

How can this possibly be legal? Exemptions in animal cruelty laws that are designed to protect the interests of factory farms have meant that pigs and other farm animals have been excluded from laws that protect dogs and cats from such cruelty.

Animals Australia has been at the forefront of the campaign for mother pigs and with your support we have achieved some significant welfare outcomes for mother pigs. In 2010, Tasmania announced a plan to ban sow stalls by 2017, Coles committed to making their home brand pork products 'sow stall free' by 2014 and the Australian pig industry decided to 'pursue a voluntary phase out of sow stalls by 2017'.

But there is still much to be done. Whilst laws fail to protect mother pigs from the cruelty of sow stalls, nobody can ensure that the pig industry will deliver on their promise to voluntarily phase them out. And sow stalls are just the first amongst many routine abuses of factory farms that must end.

Animals Australia continues to campaign tirelessly to end the abuse endured by animals in factory farms and to inspire Australians to vote against cruelty when they shop. This Mother's Day we are celebrating motherhood everywhere by offering a selection of beautiful gifts for Mum that will help fund our ongoing work to create a kinder world for all mothers.

From the Animals Australia team, we would like to thank you for your support, and wish you a very happy Mother's Day.