Farm Animal Welfare Statement

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Hill’s Pet Nutrition is committed to sustainability and positively impacting everything we do, including advancing ethical, responsible animal welfare practices in our industry. We are committed to high animal welfare standards and strongly condemn animal mistreatment.

We foster transparency and embrace a collaborative approach with our suppliers for positive societal and environmental impact. Additionally, we recognise the indispensable role of other key stakeholders, including NGOs, governmental bodies, and researchers, in bringing meaningful change. These partnerships are essential in addressing the systemic issues inherent to the pet food sector and, collectively, forge a more sustainable future for the entire industry.

Hill's Europe and our European suppliers work to follow the internationally recognised Farm Animal Welfare Committee’s Five Freedoms. We are also taking several other measures to support further animal welfare efforts, including:

  • Dedicated Employee Group: This team meets regularly, sets targets and drives progress toward ingredient transparency, responsible sourcing and greater sustainability for all animal species used. The team comprises animal welfare specialists, sustainability leaders, and other functional experts. As we reach milestones in the near future, we are committed to publicly sharing our progress.

  • Supplier Relationships: Relationships with our suppliers are crucial, and we have developed and nurtured long-term relationships with carefully selected suppliers who adhere to our robust animal welfare, quality and food safety standards. We recognise that animal welfare transformation takes time to implement. We are working with suppliers to help ensure we advance animal welfare together.

  • EU Platform on Animal Welfare/Five Domains: One of our key priorities is to actively promote the development and use of voluntary commitments to improve animal welfare further. We follow the expert group of the EU Platform on Animal Welfare, which is driving meaningful contributions in the field of animal welfare. We also acknowledge there continues to be improvement to modern animal welfare with the Five Domains and are working on discussion with suppliers on those concepts.

  • Compliance with European Animal Welfare Legislation: We aim to comply with new legislation before the implementation deadlines.

  • Industry collaboration: It is important for the entire pet food industry to bring about sustainable and lasting improvements for animal welfare. As a member of FEDIAF, we will work to push animal welfare issues forward.

  • Investment in Alternative Proteins: Working with partners, we continuously explore new technologies to provide more sustainable ingredient solutions for pet nutrition, such as proteins developed through fermentation and incorporating insect protein.

  • Sustainably-Sourced Fish Products: The fish we source for our products comes exclusively from sustainably caught or farmed suppliers certified through the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, Marine Trust and Friends of the Sea.

  • Pledge for Poultry Products: We will source 100% cage-free egg and egg products for dry and wet products by the end of 2024 from our European-based suppliers, which cover most of our European products.
    We will ask all of our European-based suppliers to meet all of the criteria of the European Chicken Commitment by no later than 2026. We continuously evaluate other humane principles balanced with current and ongoing animal disease risks.
    While thoughtfully implementing changes in the supply chain will take time, we commit our ongoing cooperation to work with our global supply network to effect impactful positive changes in the humane treatment of animals.

  • Pledge for Other Animal Ingredients: We are developing animal welfare sourcing standards for other ingredients used in our products, such as pork and beef, and we will share our progress starting in 2024.

Our ambition with our supply partners is to make a better world for people, animals, and the planet, and our continued focus on animal welfare is an important step on that journey.