Choosing high welfare meat, fish, eggs and dairy
Everyone has the power to change farmed animals’ lives by making kinder food choices. Choosing RSPCA Assured labelled meat, fish, eggs and dairy in the supermarket can help give millions of farmed animals better lives.
What is high welfare farming?
The vast majority (more than 70%) of animals farmed in the UK are farmed to lower-welfare standards. Millions of animals every year are farmed in cramped sheds or cages, with barely room to move or exercise freely. They can be deprived of natural light or comfortable bedding, or may grow so fast and abnormally large that they suffer painful health problems.
RSPCA Assured is the only farm assurance scheme solely dedicated to animal welfare. The RSPCA animal welfare standards cover every aspect of farmed animals’ lives, from birth to slaughter, ensuring that millions of animals every year have better lives.
It means that hens aren’t kept in cages. That mother pigs aren’t kept in crates and all pigs have comfortable straw to lie on. It means that salmon and trout have more space and swim in good quality water. It makes a meaningful difference to millions of animals’ lives every year.
What does high welfare farming mean for different types of farmed animals?
Chickens and hens
There are more than 800 standards each for chickens and hens. Under RSPCA Assured there are no cages, and chickens and hens have more space to move around and exercise. They must have natural daylight and access to enrichment like perching. RSPCA Assured only allows slower-growing higher-welfare chicken breeds.
Pigs
Farmers must meet more than 700 standards. Mother pigs aren’t ever kept in farrowing crates, which don't have room for them to turn around. They must have enough space to exercise and move around, comfortable straw to sleep on and root around in, and mud to wallow and cool down in if kept outside.
Cows
Farmers must meet more than 700 standards for dairy and beef cows. These include access to outdoor grazing for at least four hours a day in spring and summer. They need space to move around and lay down comfortably, cow brushes to groom on and proper veterinary plans to keep them well.
Sheep
There are more than 600 standards for sheep. They must have plenty of space to exercise and socialise, as well as lie down comfortably and rest. They need access to grazing for most of their nutrition and must be sheared once a year. Lambs must be allowed to suckle health-boosting colostrum from their mothers after birth.
Salmon and Trout
There are more than 1,200 welfare standards for salmon and 800 for trout, including good water quality and more space to swim. Handling is kept to an absolute minimum, with never more than 15 seconds out of water, and there are strict guidelines for transportation to minimise stress.
Turkeys
There are more than 700 standards for turkeys. These include having plenty of space to exercise, flap their wings and behave naturally. They must have clean and dry bedding, of at least 5cm depth, as well as natural light and plenty of enrichment like hanging rope and straw bales to peck at.
RSPCA animal welfare standards
RSPCA farmed animal welfare standards are world leading and have pioneered change across the industry. There are, on average, 760 standards farmers must meet to ensure animals have a good life.
There is an appalling lack of legal protection for farmed animals and, where there is legislation, there is little or no enforcement. The RSPCA welfare standards are a meaningful improvement on standard industry practice and RSPCA Assured’s team of assessors are out on farms ensuring that those standards are met.
We all want better for farmed animals, which is why our standards are revised around every two years, to ensure we are continually driving up welfare on RSPCA Assured member farms. We ultimately want all farmed animals reared to our standards.
