RSPCA Assured certifies 150 (around 70 percent) of the open-water salmon farms in Scotland. Animals such as chickens, pigs and turkeys can be continually confined indoors; female pigs with their newborn piglets can even be confined in barren crates that do not allow the mother pig to turn around, much less engage in natural and instinctive nesting behaviors. But what does being “certified humane” even mean? For beef cattle and dairy cows, grazing on pasture is not required and feedlots are allowed. If you're a lifelong advocate or new to the cause, this is the newsletter for you. “Red Tractor was started by farmers,” he says. [5] The standards are unique for each farm animal species. Between 2017 and 2019, Viva! Sneddon says she is glad that the RSPCA tries to improve farmed fish welfare because it is out of sight of the public, but she adds: “You have to wonder how much suffering and mortality keeps going on while [RSPCA Assured] actually puts a label on that salmon and say it’s good welfare.”, Public backlash can certainly help to bring about more publicly proactive responses to failing farms. The Humane Society is a national animal welfare group worth about 129 million dollars in revenue, with about a 215 million dollars of net assets. Last year, Hogwood was finally dropped by Red Tractor, the UK’s biggest farm assurance scheme. After suspending and investigating the farm, RSPCA Assured reinstated the farm’s certification “with special measures.”. But is being told to do better really sufficient punishment for farms that breach welfare standards? But with 46,000 British farms boasting the Red Tractor logo, stumbling onto a Red Tractor farm is not difficult. [7] The audits can be unannounced. She lives in Oxford, UK, where she moonlights delivering organic veg boxes on a cargo bike. In addition to Red Tractor, the UK has RSPCA Assured, a farm assurance scheme run by the country’s biggest animal protection charity, Lion Eggs, Quality Meat Scotland, and several others—between them, covering the production as well as the processing and packing of farmed animals, including fish. organized dozens of demonstrations outside Tesco stores condemning the supermarket and Red Tractor for continuing to support Hogwood farm, Red Tractor seems to have learned its lesson. Whenever they have flagged these issues with Red Tractor, the response has been dismissive. It isn’t the scene of a pig on Hogwood Farm being cannibalized by pen mates while still alive, nor the ones of dead animals left to rot in cages and barns (though those give me nightmares too). [19], Greener Choices, a project of Consumer Reports, confirms that the American Humane Certified label is verified and somewhat meaningful. “It’s administered by farmers through the National Farmers Union. If all farm animals in the world were treated according to your current standards, would you then ‘raise the bar’ requiring additional measures and higher standards be met. “It doesn’t seem to me they have any independent experts,” says Dr. Lynne Sneddon, who is an expert in fish welfare and Director of Bioveterinary Science at the University of Liverpool. The program was launched in 2000. Claire writes on animals, environment, and climate. After Viva! [8], The American Humane Association standards specify that animals must be raised in an environment that limits stress, includes the provision of fresh water, a healthy diet, sufficient space, proper facilities, shelter, and a resting area. It’s the one of veterinarian Roger Blowey who, after being shown Viva!’s footage of Hogwood by a television journalist, says, “To me, it’s a normal commercial farm. [14] In 2014, turkey producer Butterball became an American Humane Certified producer. “They always say, ‘We’ve inspected the farms and found nothing wrong,’” says Wardle. “What they said is, it’s better for them to be involved with the industry because they’re pushing for better welfare…I’d like them to review any treatments that could potentially be painful to salmon and deal more directly with particular issues when they arise.” Campaigners from groups like Scottish Salmon Watch have found RSPCA Assured to be similarly vague when responding to specific welfare and mortality issues. RSPCA Assured gave an unsatisfactory public response. The American Humane Certified program reflects "a common-sense way to do things," Brock says. Wardle believes that Red Tractor’s inspectors, like Blowey, don’t notice welfare abuses because those conditions—including cannibalism—appear normal to them. For example, minimum space requirements are sometimes greater than the industry norm, but do not always allow for freedom of movement. [23], 22. In one recent case RSPCA Assured did respond more directly to footage obtained by activists of poor conditions at a supposedly free-range chicken farm. Activists have uncovered several alleged breaches of these “humane” standards at farms in the U.S. too. While Red Tractor introduced a new risk-based inspection regime in 2018 to increase unannounced inspections of farms that have been flagged as a “reputational risk,” its inspectors typically don’t do many unscheduled visits on its thousands of certified farms. With so many failed farm assurance schemes around, why does it often fall to animal welfare activists to expose abuse and neglect at certified farms? “If you act on one farm you’ve got to act on them all.”. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our, How to Fact-Check and Verify Sources for Animal Rights Reporting, farmed salmon standards technical advisory groups. The American Humane Certified program is the nation's first independent, third-party certification program to verify the humane treatment of farm animals. [12], In 2014, the American Humane Association announced that it had certified one billion animals on more than 8,000 farms. Most Americans think that a “humane” label should mean that the animals had adequate living space (86%), went outdoors (78%) and were raised without cages (66%). [1] The program was launched in 2000. [15] Other producers include The Happy Egg Company,[16] Foster Farms,[17] and Clover Organic Farms.

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