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Responsibly Raising Animals

Perdue’s Culture of Animal Care

Continuing to Change the Way We Raise Animals

Industry-Leading Commitments to Animal Care

Revolutionizing How We Responsibly Raise Chickens

Our Commitments to Animal Care program is focused on letting a chicken be a chicken. This means providing chickens the space, activities and enrichment they want to create an environment where they are safe and well cared for.

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Commitments To Animal Care Program

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Our Position on Animal Care and Welfare

At Perdue Farms, our vision is “to be the most trusted name in food and agricultural products®”. That trust extends to our animal care and welfare commitments, and we embrace our responsibility to ensure animals are treated with dignity and respect. In fact, animal welfare is an important part of our company value of stewardship.

Our standards for animal care are guided by the Five Freedoms, the globally accepted gold standard for animal husbandry, including:

  • Freedom from hunger and thirst
  • Freedom from discomfort
  • Freedom from pain, injury or disease
  • Freedom to express normal behavior
  • Freedom from fear and disease

For us, the Five Freedoms align with our animal care goal of going beyond giving animals what they need, to giving them what they want.

Our approach to animal care is a process of continuous improvement involving a wide range of stakeholders, with a commitment to transparency. We believe that welfare goes beyond meeting the physical needs of animals and that success is measured by more than efficiency and productivity.

We take a collaborative approach to animal care, adhering to strict requirements under the guidance of a team of veterinarians and animal welfare professionals, and input from third-party experts.

Mistreatment or abuse of animals is never tolerated. All associates handling live animals are provided training, including their responsibility to report any violations of our animal welfare policies. The farmers and ranchers who raise animals for us share in the responsibility to provide care according to our best practices and standards, and to alert us to any issues involving animal health or welfare. We regularly engage them for their input as part of our continuous improvement process.

All species that are raised and sourced for our brands and products are done so under the following standards:

  • The avoidance of confinement for all species.
  • No artificial or hormonal growth-promoting substances used, including beta antagonists or ractopamine.
  • Antibiotics will only be used when prescribed by a veterinarian with duration limits to ensure the best animal welfare for the animals.
  • An emphasis on the freedom to express natural behaviors through environmental enrichments suitable for each specific species.
  • Animals raised and sourced throughout our operations have not been subject to any genetic modification or are derived from cloned stock.
  • The avoidance of routine activities such as tail docking, teeth clipping/grinding on pigs, beak trimming on poultry and tail docking on cows.
  • Travel times for all poultry and livestock are kept to a minimum and our goal is to not exceed eight hours.
  • Animals are rendered insensible prior to being harvested.
  • Compliance with all legislative standards and raising and sourcing all animals from animal welfare organizations such as Global Animal Partnership, Certified Humane, American Humane, USDA Certified Organic, United Egg Producers certified, National Dairy Farmers Assuring Responsible Management and USDA Processed Verified.

At Perdue Farms, we take pride in being an industry leader in animal care and remain committed to our journey of continuous improvement and doing the right things for the right reasons.  

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Our Record on Animal Welfare

When it comes to animal care, we strive to not only meet but exceed industry standards. Our farms maintain the highest level of certification for animal care, which reflects our unwavering commitment to protecting the health and safety of our birds. Furthermore, we are committed to complete transparency and regularly submit to independent, third-party audits to demonstrate our industry leading animal welfare policies and practices. Our record speaks for itself:

Sharing Our Audit Results

 

We're Raising Animals to Higher Standards

No Cages or Crates

No Antibiotics Ever

No Drugs for Growth Performance*

*While federal law prohibits the use of hormones and steroids in poultry and pork, we don’t use any growth-promoting drugs, including beta antagonists or ractopamine.

Freedom to Express Normal Behavior

All-Vegetarian Diet with No Animal By-Products

Audited and Verified

 

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Our Progress

We are constantly evaluating our programs and policies to ensure that we are continuously improving animal welfare. This means:

  • Increasing enrichment activities: Perdue is funding research and updating chicken houses to explore the impact of elevated enrichments on birds in poultry houses.
  • Building strong farmer relationships: Maintaining strong, open relationships with the farmers who care for our chickens allows us to understand and address their challenges.
  • Feeding animals a well-balanced, quality diet: Our animals are raised on a diet free from antibiotics and drugs and are fed all vegetarian feed without any animal by-products.

Track Our Progress

 

Animal Welfare Programs and Practices

Perdue Farms is dedicated to ensuring the highest standards of animal welfare through its comprehensive care programs.

Explore Our Programs

 

Our Animal Care Culture in Action

For us, animal welfare is a journey of continuous improvement, and we are dedicated to consistently raising the bar by learning, listening and responding.

 

Farmer Communications

Farmer Communications

Exploring More Space with Enrichments

Exploring More Space with Enrichments

9th Annual Animal Care Summit Highlights

2024 Animal Care Summit Highlights

Opening the Farm for Future Farmers

Opening the Farm for Future Farmers

Litter Assessment

Litter Assessment



Company Stewardship Report

Learn about the steps we're taking to reach our goal of becoming the most trusted name in food and agricultural products.

FAQs

Got questions about our policies and practices? We’ve got answers.

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