On the heels of a shocking undercover investigation by Mercy For Animals, Tyson Foods Inc., the second-largest U.S. pork producer, has just announced a set of new animal welfare guidelines for its pork suppliers that signal an important new era and direction for the company.
In a letter sent to all of the company’s pork producers yesterday, Tyson is urging suppliers to make the following important changes:
- Improve housing systems by allowing sows of all sizes to stand, turn around, lie down, and stretch their legs. Tyson is asking its contract farmers to implement improved “quality and quantity of space” standards in the design of any newly built or redesigned gestation barns.
- Discontinue the practice of slamming piglets headfirst against the ground to kill them. Tyson will require contract farmers who manage company-owned sows to adopt an alternative method of “euthanasia” consistent with recommendations in the American Veterinary Medical Association’s “Guidelines for the Euthanasia of Animals” by the end of 2014.
- Manage pain during tail docking and castration of piglets. Additionally, Tyson says it will fund research to improve practical pain mitigation methods and encourage producers to adopt practices that reduce or eliminate the pain associated with these procedures, including the use of anesthetics and analgesics.
- Install video monitoring systems on farms to improve animal handling and increase oversight and worker accountability. Tyson is asking contract farmers who manage company-owned sows to install video monitoring systems by the end of 2014.
This announcement follows the release of graphic hidden-camera footage captured by an MFA investigator at a Tyson pig factory farm in Oklahoma showing sadistic and egregious animal abuse.
Watch the undercover video footage here:
The pork industry’s use of gestation crates is one of the worst forms of institutionalized animal abuse in existence. By speaking out against cruel crates, painful mutilations, and horrific killing methods, Tyson is taking a positive step forward in improving animal welfare. We hope this announcement is more than PR hogwash and that Tyson acts quickly and diligently to implement these changes in order to spare millions of animals needless misery and suffering.
MFA is urging Tyson to add more teeth to these new guidelines by making them a mandate, rather than a mere recommendation, for all its pork producers. Other key players in the pork industry, including Walmart, should follow Tyson’s lead and stop the unacceptable practices of confining pigs in crates so small they can’t turn around, mutilating piglets without painkillers, and slamming them headfirst into the ground.
Gestation crates have been widely condemned as one of the cruelest factory farming practices in the world. In fact, gestation crates are so inhumane they have been banned in nine U.S. states, as well as in the entire European Union. Recognizing their inherent cruelty, over 60 major food providers, including McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Chipotle, Safeway, Kroger, Costco and Kmart, have all demanded their suppliers do away with these cruel crates. Major pork producers like Smithfield and Hormel have committed to phasing out gestation crates, and Cargill is already 50 percent crate-free.
Sadly, Walmart
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the largest food retailer in America
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has yet to implement a policy requiring its pork suppliers to abandon cruel gestation crates. Please visit WalmartCruelty.com today and sign our petition calling on Walmart to end the use of gestation crates in its pork supply chain. Then consider helping pigs and other animals in your own life by adopting a healthy and humane vegan diet.
