Watching Over Animal Welfare
After I wrote about Wild Turkey Farm’s involvement in an animal-welfare program last week, I got an e-mail from Farm Sanctuary, another nonprofit that devotes itself to the humane treatment of animals.
Farm Sanctuary has done its own report, called “The Truth Behind the Labels,” on the various labels and animal-welfare certification programs around. It appears to come to similar conclusions as a report I cited in my article by the World Society for the Protection of Animals.
The 71-page report and the shorter summary, accesssed through the links above, provide a good comparison and contrast of the various programs. In particular, it points out how varying standards for such terms as “free-range,” “natural,” and “humanely raised,” make them destined to become practically meaningless, if they aren’t already.
Even the USDA’s certified organic program is not perfect, which highlights the needs for these independent third-party programs called Certified Humane, American Humane Certified and Animal Welfare Approved.
And I think it also highlights the need for additional folks to watch over these certifying organizations.
By the way, I give Farm Sanctuary credit for an even-handed report, despite their inherent conflict with these organizations that certify meat operations. Farm Sanctuary will never fully endorse any of these programs because, as it says on its Web site, “We maintain that the words ‘humane’ and ‘slaughter’ are mutually exclusive.
