Dogs and cats today are treated like members of the family, and as animal lovers, people are becoming more concerned with finding more ethical and sustainable food for their companion animals than ever before.
The sad truth is, most dog and cat food on store shelves are made from animals that have never received a moment of care or compassion. Most animals used for food for dogs and cats come from factory farms, and are confined to crates, cages, or their own oversized bodies. The conditions for these animals can be so bad that some never even make it off of the farm.
Now more than ever, consumers want greater transparency about the animal products they purchase today, however, misleading and false advertising may lead to customers unknowingly purchasing products they believe are more in line with their values.
When pet food companies use words like “natural,” “responsibly sourced,” and “highest quality standards” without policies to back this up, they may be misleading you into purchasing their product when you otherwise would opt for less cruel alternatives. Consumers expect these companies to prioritize their animal companion’s health while not supporting the worst abuses for the animals they use to make their products.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Pet food companies don’t have to buy meat from pigs who spent months of their lives in gestation crates, or eggs from hens who spent their lives in a barren wire cage. These companies are choosing to support practices that are so cruel that they are even illegal in some U.S. states. Meanwhile, pet food brands like Open Farm, Evermore, and Wild Coast Raw, are leading in their sector when it comes to animal welfare by banning cages for hens, crates for mother pigs and the most extreme abuses for chickens used for meat.
Below you can see how seriously 10 premium U.S. pet food brands take animal welfare. The companies are listed below based on their commitments to welfare relating to chickens used for meat, pigs used for meat, and hens used for eggs.
Consumers like you are driving this change, and we need you now to add your voice in support of animal welfare and ask those companies that refuse to allow mother pigs to turn around, refuse to give hens space to spread their wings, and allow the worst abuses for chickens in their supply chains to raise their standards.
The following companies have refused to acknowledge and prioritize animal welfare in their supply chains and make a public commitment to improve the lives of pigs, chickens, and hens.
Join us in calling on each company to end the worst abuses in their supply chains!
The Honest Kitchen has adopted policies for pigs and chickens, yet it’s hard to understand why they refuse to ban cages for hens.
Tell The Honest Kitchen to include hens in their animal welfare standards!
The following pet food brands have all committed to comprehensive welfare policies for pigs, chickens and hens in their supply chains.
Businesses have the ability and responsibility to have the highest standards of animal welfare. Here are the issues we're asking pet food companies to address.
Instead of providing mother pigs an adequate amount of space, factory farms force them into crates so small they can’t even turn around. Crates prohibit farmed animals from engaging in their instincts to forage, root, nest, and socialize, causing extreme stress and frustration. They are banned in ten states in the US – Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, Oregon and Rhode Island – as well as in the United Kingdom and Sweden.
The serious problems for chickens used for meat consist of three main issues: extreme overbreeding, overcrowding, and traumatic slaughter methods. They are bred to grow at an alarmingly unnatural rate, which causes leg deformities, organ failure, and heart attacks. Each flock, which consists of tens of thousands of birds, are kept in dirty, windowless sheds, forced to live in their own waste with ammonia levels so concentrated that many suffer from painful chemical burns. When these birds are brought to slaughter, they are violently shackled upside down. Their throats are then slit, often while they’re still conscious.
The Better Chicken Commitment addresses these problems and is designed for food companies using chicken meat products. Over 400 leading companies already support the Better Chicken Commitment including KFC, Burger King, Chipotle, Starbucks, Compass Group, Whole Foods, HelloFresh, General Mills, Unilever, and Nestlé.
Selectively bred to produce the maximum number of eggs, hens spend up to two years packed in wire cages with six other birds. The cages are so small and crowded that hens cannot even spread their wings or exhibit other natural behaviors.
Companies and consumers are driving a market shift to 100% cage-free eggs, recognizing the misery of hens living in barren, wire cages. Nine U.S. states have banned cages for hens, including Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Michigan, Washington, Oregon, California, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
