Can you tell me more about your animal welfare policies?
We want every animal in our care to be raised in a healthy environment and treated properly. Through frequent training and audits, we ensure employees and suppliers are adhering to our rigorous guidelines for animal handling, air and water quality, food access and antibiotic use.
Hormel Foods is dedicated to doing things the right way in everything we do. That includes our animal stewardship practices. To maintain our high standards, we have developed the following principles to guide our animal care and handling procedures.
- Every animal in our care will be provided a balanced and nutritious diet and water.
- A safe and humane environment will be furnished for every animal throughout its life, including minimizing stress, managing social needs and controlling temperature.
- Every facility will be properly maintained with the animals’ well-being in mind, including appropriate facilities and space and the utilization of compassionate, stress-reducing techniques during handling.
- Animals will be raised to be healthy and provided the best in medical care, including veterinary oversight and the identification and prompt treatment of sick animals. When medically necessary, we use antibiotics responsibly and focus on reducing the use of antibiotics that are important to human health. We do not use antibiotics for growth promotion.
- We will follow clearly documented humane procedures in the event an animal requires euthanization.
- We have developed industry-leading standards in conjunction with animal care experts, including renowned authorities on humane animal husbandry. These veterinarians and animal experts help us to create a blueprint that ensures every animal is raised in a healthy environment and treated with the utmost care, respect and compassion throughout their entire life. Our network of family farms understands and shares these values.
Hormel Foods has a zero-tolerance policy toward the mistreatment of animals through abuse or neglect. We have strict requirements related to animal care, overseen by veterinarians, third-party experts and a team of animal welfare professionals at Hormel Foods.