We Ensure Respectful Animal Treatment
Our USDA Process Verified Program for Poultry Care covers all our poultry operations. The Perdue Poultry Care Program encompasses all phases of our supply chain, including breeder and hatchery operations, appropriate comfort and shelter on the farms, comprehensive healthcare and monitoring, nutrition, catching, transporting and harvesting.
Our USDA Process Verified Program for Poultry Care provides the added assurance of an audited program with more than 50 documented points from hatchery to harvest, and it covers all our growing areas and harvest operations.
Our Poultry Care Program combines principles from the National Chicken Council, our own best practices and the Perdue Commitments to Animal Care initiatives to create a baseline of care that helps ensure the health, comfort and safety of every chicken we raise.
For poultry raised indoors, we use temperature-controlled housing with fresh-air ventilation. In the house, chickens are protected from the elements, disease and predators, and they are given constant access to food and water, sufficient room to move and exhibit most natural behaviors, and periods of light and darkness.
All our organic and other free-range chickens are raised on farms that provide:
In addition, our organic chickens are raised on farms rated GAP 2 or higher by the Global Animal Partnership (GAP). On GAP 2-4 farms, to protect birds from the elements, they are allowed outside during the daytime once their feathers are fully developed, which is typically around 4 weeks of age. Birds may come indoors at night and when temperatures are too cold for their comfort. For GAP 5 farms, birds have outdoor perches and are allowed 24-hour access to the pasture area. This program uses a breed that is better suited to the outdoors.
We’re committed to meeting demand from current and future customers who desire a sustainable supply of chicken that meets all the “2024” animal welfare criteria outlined in the “Joint Animal Protection Agency Statement on Broiler Chicken Welfare Issues” and by the Global Animal Partnership.
At Perdue Farms, we are committed to producing healthy, quality turkeys with a focus on animal care and welfare.
PERDUE® is the nation’s largest No-Antibiotics-Ever turkey brand.* All our No-Antibiotics-Ever turkeys are fed a vegetarian diet and are certified in the USDA Process Verified Program by USDA auditors. Our growing barns provide natural light for our turkeys. We do not use antibiotics for disease prevention.
As part of our commitment to higher welfare standards for the turkeys we raise, we follow the National Turkey Federation Standards of Animal Care Guidelines, and our farms are audited annually by PAACO certified auditors.
The farmers who raise our turkeys share an equal responsibility to provide care according to our standards and make us aware of problems with animal health or welfare. We provide animal care and welfare hotline for our associates and independent farmer partners to report mistreatment or suspected mistreatment anonymously.
To further ensure the health and welfare of the turkeys in our care:
*Source: MULO & MULO + Convenience data is reported by Information Resources Inc through its Integrated Fresh Market Advantage = Integrated TSV Syndicated Database, for the Total Turkey RWNW NAE & Total Ground Turkey NAE Categories for the 52-week ending period 10/04/20.
Our Coleman All Natural Meats operations source hogs only from American Humane Certified™ U.S. family farms that are free of gestation and farrowing crates and never use antibiotics, added hormones or growth-promoting drugs.
Our hogs are raised on an all-vegetarian diet in a combination of pastures, hoop barns, outdoor lots and controlled-atmosphere barns with fresh-air ventilation.
The American Humane Certified program provides third-party verification for every step of live production, transport and harvesting. Our farmers must meet or exceed more than 200 science-based humane animal care standards to produce for the Coleman All Natural Meats brand.
Coleman Natural was an early adopter of California’s Prop 12 and Massachusetts Questions 3 to eliminate crates for pregnant pigs. Coleman is 100% Prop 12 and MA Q3 compliant, providing ample room and pens for pigs to roam and interact naturally.
Niman Ranch is a community of more than 600 independent family farmers and ranchers who raise pork, beef, and lamb traditionally, humanely, and sustainably to deliver the Finest-Tasting Meat in the World®.
Niman Ranch livestock are raised outside or in deeply bedded pens where the animals can root, roam, socialize, play and exhibit their natural behaviors comfortably. Niman Ranch protocols strictly prohibit animal byproducts in feed, antibiotics, hormones, gestation, and farrowing crates.
Niman Ranch is the largest farmer and rancher network in North America to be 100% Certified Humane®, a certification recognized as one of the most stringent animal welfare protocols available. In addition to third-party certification, all Niman Ranch farms and ranches are personally inspected before being accepted into the program and are visited and audited regularly by Niman Ranch field agents.
Niman Ranch has letters of support from the Humane Society of the United States, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Compassion in World Farming recognizing the brand’s long-held leadership in animal care.
From Paul Willis, our founding hog farmer, developing the very first hog welfare protocols with the Animal Welfare Institute in the 1990s, to today using our voice to advocate for California’s Proposition 12 and Massachusetts’s Question 3, the country’s strongest animal welfare laws, humane animal care has always been a core value to Niman Ranch.
Learn about the steps we're taking to reach our goal of becoming the most trusted name in food and agricultural products.
