Animal rights groups plan to assess Canadian corporation’s commitment to animal welfare later this year.
The Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare, sponsored by Compassion in World Farming and World Animal Protection, has been tracking food processors and retailers around the world.
About 80 companies have been reviewed in three audits going back to 2012.
The group plans to be in Vancouver later this summer to conduct reviews, said Nicky Amos, program director for the benchmarking group based in the United Kingdom.
The organizations are opposed to animals kept in confinement or subjected to painful procedures like beak trimming in chicks, dehorning of cattle and castration.
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Monitoring companies as diverse as Marks and Spencer, Wendy’s, Heinz, Tesco and Unilever, the 2014 study determined many corporations have animal welfare policies but fewer than half audited the performance of their suppliers.
“While the overall scores remain low, we are seeing some significant efforts being made by certain companies to formalize farm animal welfare requirements into supplier specifications/codes of conduct, and there are some noteworthy examples of how companies are collaborating with suppliers on developing innovative online tools, sharing knowledge and best practices, and improving management understanding of performance through enhanced monitoring and reporting practices,” Amos wrote in an email.
