We Keep Looking Forward
Treating animals with respect means going beyond the minimum to keep animals healthy and to produce safe food. We view animal care as a journey of continuous improvement, evolving with advancements in animal husbandry and behavior, consumer questions and public concerns. This responsibility stretches across all of our raising programs and is shared by the farm families we trust to raise animals for us.
Our programs are designed so that we can raise animals in a reduced-stress environment where we don’t need to rely on human or animal antibiotics to keep them healthy, and we never use drugs for growth promotion or artificial growth promoters.
100%
of our chickens, cattle, hogs, cows and sheep are raised under no-antibiotics-ever protocols
100%
of hog, cattle and lamb production are raised under third-party verified humane animal care
100%
of animals are raised under documented responsible care protocols
100%
of animals are pre-harvest stunned
100%
of raised turkeys and hogs are controlled atmosphere stunned
100%
of farmers and associates handling live animals receive welfare training
59%
of poultry houses have windows
37%
of poultry have enrichments
27%
of poultry have outdoor access
growth-promotingdrugs
FREE
Toll-Free hotline number to report welfare violations
USDA
Process Verified Programs forall poultry
Avoidance Of Close Confinement*
Perdue Farms is committed to the routine avoidance of activities such as tail docking of pigs and cows, debeaking of chickens and toenail conditioning of turkeys. As of 2025:
- 100% of chickens are raised confinement free
- 100% of turkeys are raised confinement free
- 100% of lambs are raised confinement free and ranch-finished
- 96% of beef cattle are raised confinement free and void of commercial feed lots
- 100% of hogs are raised crate free
- 27% of poultry raised free range
Environmental Enrichment*
At Perdue Farms, we recognize that providing animals with appropriate, species-specific environmental enrichments can improve their living conditions and help encourage their natural behaviors. As of 2025:
- 100% of lambs are raised on pasture
- 96% of beef cattle have enrichments, such as shade with dirt, corncobs, stalks and other natural materials, sprinklers in warm weather; brush out in pasture for scratching posts; hedge rows, stacks of round bales, and other wind breakers.
- 100% of pigs in our network have access to enrichments allowing the animals to exhibit natural behaviors. Commonly used enrichments include deep bedding (typically corn cobs, hanging tires, balls, stalks and straw), grass, brush, wallows and trees when outdoors, hay or straw bales, and sprinklers when hot.
- 37% of chickens have enrichments, such as boxes, perches, platforms and pecking objects with natural light and outdoor access.
- 0% of Perdue’s turkeys have enrichments
Avoidance Of Routine Activities*
Perdue Farms is committed to the routine avoidance of activities such as tail docking of pigs and cows, debeaking of chickens and toenail conditioning of turkeys. As of July 2025:
- 100% of lambs are free from mulesing
- 100% of pigs raised are free from teeth clipping
- 46% of pigs raised are free from tail docking
- 0% of chickens are beak conditioned
- 0% of turkeys are toenail conditioned
- 0% of beef cows are tail docked
Stunning*
Our objective is to ensure that all animal species, including chicken, turkey, pork, beef, dairy cows, and lamb, are rendered insensible prior to being harvested. As of July 2025:
- 99.2% of turkeys and hogs are rendered insensible prior to being harvested using controlled atmosphere stunning.
- 100% of chickens, cattle, hogs, turkeys, and lambs are rendered insensible prior to being harvested.
- 21.9% of our chickens are rendered insensible using Controlled Atmosphere Stunning.
Transportation*
Travel times for all poultry and livestock are kept to a minimum and our goal is to not exceed eight hours. As of 2025:
- 71% of all species raised and sourced are traveling eight hours or less
- 90% of all lambs
- 88% of all cattle
- 75% of all chickens
- 57% of all pigs
- 30% of all turkeys
Welfare Outcome Goal
Our beef, lamb and pork programs are incorporating additional welfare outcome measurements, including a commitment to reduce lameness. Baselines, targeted improvements, and reporting will be established in the coming year.
*All species raised and sourced for Perdue Farms brands.
Openness & Transparency
As part of our pledge "to be transparent in our programs, goal and progresses," we committed to share key animal care metrics, openly criticize ourselves when appropriate, and honestly and respectfully answer those who constructively criticize us.
Farm Open House
As part of our commitment to transparency, we routinely invite people to tour our farms and plants. We encourage our farmers to be open to visitors within the constraints of biosecurity and business needs. Over the course of a year, a range of stakeholders, including retail and food service customers, media, advocacy groups, community members, students, and government representatives, visit our facilities. We track the number of tours by audience and have a goal to conduct 100 tours a year. Through August 2024, we have hosted 95 tours.
On-Farm Learning Center - An Important Part of Our Transparency
Working with farm families, we have established three on-farm Poultry Learning Centers. The family hosts guests for a transparent, interactive experience to learn about poultry farming and proper animal care. Built seamlessly into the side of a working chicken house, each learning center includes a large viewing room that allows guests to observe the birds undisturbed in their environment. Farmers explain what visitors are seeing inside the chicken house, as well as the timeline from when farmers receive the birds to how they raise and care for them. Guests can learn using actual poultry equipment that replicates what they see through the window, including mechanized feeders and waterers and automated temperature control technology.The first viewing house opened in Kentucky in 2018. A second opened in Georgia in 2019. In early 2020, a third viewing farm in North Carolina opened for visitors.
Improve Farmer Relationships
To successfully improve our animal care programs, we need to bolster relationships with the farmers who raise our chickens. No one spends more time with our chickens than the people who raise them, and we value their insights. The following programs are designed to improve communication and help move us to our goal of being the “Farmer’s Choice” for growing chickens. About 40% of the farmers who have shared their email addresses check in through our farmer website, making it easier for us to connect with them. Based on farmer feedback, we have converted our farmer website into an app. This allows a farmer to receive notifications on their farm when we update the site and have important information to share. We have seen an increase in usage since going live earlier this year. Our operations leaders continue to work toward overcommunicating.
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.