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Animal Welfare
The structure of the Animal Welfare Act 1999 reflects a wider
and stronger community interest in the welfare of animals than
that which existed in previous legislation. It creates a new framework
and approach for animal welfare in New Zealand. It is a clear
statement to New Zealanders and to the rest of the world that
animals in New Zealand have a right to proper and sufficient care.
And what do New Zealand's customers think?
Tesco: "We demand high standards of animal welfare
and have livestock codes of practice which cover all aspects of
animal husbandry, animal welfare requirements, environmental impact
and food safety factors. All our UK meat, poultry, eggs and farmed
fish suppliers must be members of an independently audited and
certified farm assurance scheme. We also ensure overseas suppliers
to UK stores comply with standards equivalent to the UK"
Marks & Spencer: "At Marks & Spencer we work
closely with our suppliers to ensure they raise their animals
using high standards of animal health, husbandry and welfare.
And we have a team of animal welfare specialists who inspect our
farms to ensure this is the case.
We've based our welfare policy on recommendations from the UK's
Farm Animal Welfare Council, which include what are known as the
Five Freedoms. Therefore we ensure our animals have freedom:
" from hunger and thirst
" from discomfort
" from pain, injury and disease
" to express normal behaviour
" from fear and distress "
Sainsbury: "Our customers have the right to be confident
that animals reared for meat, fish or eggs sold in our stores
have been well treated.
We work closely with suppliers, farm assurance schemes and independent
farming and veterinary experts to improve the health and welfare
of livestock throughout our supply chain. All our livestock suppliers
- including those outside the UK - are expected to be members
of a recognised farm assurance scheme, and are audited accordingly.
Any suppliers who are not in a recognised scheme are required
to work to the requirements of our Livestock Code of Practice."
Safeway Inc: "Safeway is a retail grocery industry
leader in animal welfare. The company understands that its responsibility
as a purchaser of food products must include working with its
vendors to ensure that animals in the food production system are
being treated humanely. The company has developed a comprehensive
animal welfare program to ensure that both its national brand
and private label suppliers have programs in place standard for
the humane treatment of animals in all aspects of animal husbandry,
shipment, and handling during the harvest process.
Course and Training
Achieve Enterprises has developed an expertise in this area and
has been involved in animal welfare audits.
A number of welfare courses are available for those organisations
that are seeking to strengthen their knowledge and competencies
in this important area. A sample programme can be downloaded from
the link, it should be understood that AEL is happy to customise
programmes to suit specific company requirements.
Unit Standards are available to attendees of the course and the
assessments for them can be found on the Jumpstart
site.
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