SOMETHING DISTURBING is happening in the Florida elections this fall. No, not the chance that Janet Reno will be the Democratic candidate for governor. A state initiative has qualified for the ballot letting voters decide whether to grant constitutional rights to pregnant pigs.

On the surface, the issue is one of animal husbandry. In the interest of industrial efficiency, and to prevent mother pigs from accidentally rolling on and crushing their offspring, many pig farmers confine pregnant sows in "farrowing crates" during the final stage of pregnancy and for a time after birth.

Supporters of the practice say that the crates, which are seven feet long and two feet wide, ensure the safety and health of the sow and her piglets. A preliminary report of a study by the Iowa State University comparing three different systems for housing gestating sows seems to verify this claim, finding that the crate system produces the "highest farrowing [birth] rate."

But animal rights activists claim that immobilizing the sows in crates causes a "wide range of physical and psychological problems" for the pigs. They want to see this breeding technique banned. Thus, taking advantage of Florida's easy qualification process for voter initiatives, animal rightists have qualified a proposed state constitutional amendment that, if passed, would make it not just illegal but unconstitutional to confine a pregnant pig "in a cage, crate, or other enclosure, or tether a pregnant pig on a farm so that the pig is prevented from turning around freely."