Animal Welfare
As a retailer with a wide variety of products, we have a responsibility to ensure high standards of animal welfare in our supply chains. We are committed to following practices that support the welfare of animals sourced for food and non-food products, and these practices are regularly updated to align with industry and government standards and guidelines1.
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Our goal is to ensure that our suppliers adopt and implement high standards of animal welfare across our food and general merchandise supply chains.
We believe in the Five Freedoms of animal welfare, by which every animal deserves to be:
Free from hunger & thirst.
Free from discomfort.
Free of pain, injury or disease.
Free to express normal behavior.
Free from fear and distress.
For their entire lifetime, including:
Birth.
Growth/rearing/breeding.
When feeding, watering or sheltering.
Transport.
Slaughter.
Compliance and training
All suppliers must comply with these standards. We also expect supplier partners to maintain written policies detailing best practices for each of the areas relevant to their products. Where possible, we perform product testing protocols to verify conformance with our commitments.
We provide training on animal welfare topics to internal teams responsible for buying or sourcing animal products, and we expect all of our suppliers to provide adequate training to all individuals involved with the direct handling of animals throughout the supply chain.
1 We expect suppliers to adhere to animal-derived raw material product standards in a number of material categories, with the exception of leather, which is our least consumed raw material category within relevant areas of business, and therefore not material.
2 American Veterinary Medical Association FAQ: Antibiotics are a type of antimicrobial, but not all antimicrobials are antibiotics. The term “antimicrobial” is the proper scientific term, while the word “antibiotic” is generally more widely used, so we use both words in the title and at the beginning of the section, then continue using the proper scientific term, “antimicrobial.”