OUR ‘IDEAL’ SUPERMARKET
We’re often asked what our ‘IDEAL’ WELFARE-FRIENDLY SUPERMARKET would be like. We hope that one day consumers will be able to shop in a supermarket which…
- Stocks only free-range or organic meat, poultry, milk and eggs
- Uses only free-range or organic ingredients in processed products
- Stocks only wild, sustainably-caught fish or, if selling farmed fish, ensures it is from organic higher welfare systems
- Ensures all animals have bedding
- Ensures none of its farm animals suffer mutilations e.g. tail-docking, beak-trimming or castration
- Only uses dual-purpose, sustainable breeds of farm animal rather than those which can result in major welfare problems e.g. fast-growing broiler chickens, extreme breeds of Holstein dairy cattle
- Bans the use of products from genetically engineered or cloned animals or their descendants
- Ensures no ‘waste’ animals are produced from selection for a specific product, such as male dairy calves who are often killed at birth
- Ensures no animals suffer long periods of starvation or feed-restriction, such as farmed fish or meat chicken breeding birds
- Bans the use of antibiotic growth promoters or genetically engineered production enhancers
- Does not sell exotic or luxury animal products from essentially wild animals or those where production imposes severe welfare problems, such as frogs’ legs and foie gras
- Does not sell animals which have been sourced from livestock markets
- Ensures animals are slaughtered on the farm of rearing or at the local abattoir to minimise journey times
- Ensures all animals, including fish, are slaughtered humanely
- Applies its standards to all farm animals in its supply chain including breeding animals
Our ‘IDEAL' WELFARE-FRIENDLY SUPERMARKET would strive to continually improve animal welfare by investment in research and would have a detailed animal welfare policy with targets that are reviewed every year.
A senior person at the supermarket and, ideally, a dedicated animal welfare officer would have specific responsibility for animal welfare and the implemention of the company’s policies.
None of the UK’s supermarkets have reached this ideal yet, but some of them are making progress towards it. Click here for the relevant pages from our full report to see how the supermarkets score on our ‘IDEAL' WELFARE-FRIENDLY SUPERMARKET criteria.
