Dive Brief:
- Tyson Foods has told farmers it will require more humane treatment of hogs.
- Among the new rules: mandatory installation of video surveillance equipment , a ban on the use of blunt force to kill sick piglets (i.e., slamming the baby animals' heads against the ground); and the use of bigger pens for pregnant sows.
- The letter, sent to 3,000 independent suppliers, comes just weeks after a video surfaced of breathtakingly brutal treatment at a Tyson supplier.
Dive Insight:
After years of insisting that claims of abuse were overblown, the meat industry is suddenly moving quickly to reduce cruelty. Last month Tyson told producers it would require third-party audits of animal-welfare standards at cattle and chicken facilities. Just days ago Smithfield Foods told suppliers it would offer incentives to those who ended the use of gestation crates.
We applaud these moves. We applaud the animal-rights groups who have demanded them for years and years and years. We applaud, too, the legions of consumers who began voting with their wallets and their social-media accounts to end cruelty.
No doubt there is more work to be done. But change is here and it will not go away. Companies that continue to insist that all is well, or that change must come more slowly, do so at their peril.