Animal Welfare
Assessing Company Management and Performance on Animal Welfare
KPI | Protein Scope | Operational Scope | Sub-KPIs and Best Practice Criteria |
|---|---|---|---|
Animal welfare policy | Livestock only | Farm | Welfare policy • The company provides a statement supporting the Five Freedoms and has a formal animal welfare policy covering all operations, including actions for policy breaches. • The company is committed to training employees on animal welfare issues and conducting research to advance animal welfare. Key welfare issues • The company includes several key welfare issues in its policy, such as routine mutilation, long-distance transport, environmental enrichment, and humane slaughter. |
Assurance & certification | Livestock only | Farm | Auditing & assurance by an animal welfare organisation • The company is certified by a robust farm assurance programme for all operations. Public reporting on welfare metrics • The company discloses metrics showing improvements in animal welfare during the reporting period. |
Performance on key material risks | Livestock only | Farm | Performance on key material welfare risks by protein • The company discloses key welfare metrics for each farmed species, including routine mutilation, long-distance transport, environmental enrichment, and humane slaughter. |
Aquatic animal welfare | Aquaculture only | Hatcheries, Farm | Welfare policy • The company provides a statement on the importance of animal welfare and has a policy covering all operations, including handling protocols and humane stunning. Reporting on animal welfare metrics • The company assures stocking densities are met, and no farmed shrimp are subjected to eye-stalk ablation. Reporting on measures to improve welfare • The company discloses the percentage of the R&D budget allocated to researching optimal environmental enrichment. |
Disease management – all fish | Aquaculture only | Hatcheries, Farm | Mortality rates • The company discloses its mortality rate targets and reports progress against these targets. Disease outbreaks • The company discloses the number of disease outbreaks over the past three years and the approach to preventing outbreaks. |
Disease management – Shrimp aquaculture | Aquaculture only | Hatcheries, Farm | Mortality • The company discloses its mortality rate targets and reports progress against these targets. Disease outbreaks and biosecurity • The company discloses the number of disease outbreaks over the past three years and the approach to preventing outbreaks. • The company discloses using pond liners and water filtration. |
Note: There were no changes between the 2023 and 2024 iterations of the methodology.
Animal Welfare Aligned Subject-matter Experts & Frameworks
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