Animal Welfare Agenda and Indian Poultry Industry

Animal Welfare Agenda and Indian Poultry Industry

By:

Vijay Sardana

Agri-food Supply Chain and Food Laws Expert

The author had privilege to study various animal welfare guidelines and visit various farms working on animalwelfare guidelines in various parts of the world. It is also fact that domestic animals are adaptable to a variety of conditions. Today’s broiler chicken has been selected to thrive under modern management conditions. Management practices that promote good health and production, prevent disease and minimize stress are consistent with generally accepted criteria of humane treatment.

There is growing debate in the society about the Animal welfare issues and role of the poultry industry in ensuring the same. The consumers and society at large have a right to demand humane treatment of animals and to promote the production of quality products.

In major poultry producing countries poultry is a well-structured business and managed by large corporate because of the accepted concept of slaughtering of animals which are raised for consumption as food.  

Due to various social and sentimental reasons, India as one nation has yet to accept the livestock industry as a mainline industry having slaughtering as an essential process in food processing activity in the meat supply chain.

While considering animal welfare standards and food safety system, it is important to keep in mind the fragmented nature of the poultry production system in India, the wide range in scale of operations, multiple agencies in supply chain and a wide variety of climatic conditions present in India. It will be difficult to make one standard and enforce the same on all. This will, in fact, become counterproductive and wasteful efforts if the guidelines cannot be implemented or enforced in a practical situation.

Structure of Indian poultry industry and Animal Welfare:

An animal is considered to be in a good state of welfare “…if (as indicated by scientific evidence) it is healthy, comfortable, well nourished, safe, able to express innate behavior, and if it is not suffering from unpleasant states such as pain, fear, and distress” (World Organization for Animal Health, OIE).

Animals’ physical needs are relatively easily discussed, described, and studied, but their mental states and needs can be more difficult to characterize. It is well recognized that this is an ongoing discussion and evolving science. With that in mind, the Animal Welfare Guidelines should be updated regularly to include new science-based parameters.

Current Animal Welfare Guidelines have been developed to evaluate the current commercial strains of broiler chicken by auditing how these birds are raised, housed, managed, and slaughtered.

The approach suggested for animal welfare:

At the outset, it is important to note that one standard may not be appropriate for other types of poultry as management practices may differ. The following principles (which apply to all types of housing and strains of chickens) should be considered in the development of this document:

· Poultry raised for food should be cared for in ways that prevent or minimize fear, pain, stress, and suffering.

· Guidelines for welfare should balance scientific knowledge and professional judgment with consideration of ethical and societal values.

· It is the welfare of the chickens themselves that is foremost, not how humans might perceive a practice or an environment.

· Poultry should be treated with respect throughout their lives and provided a humane death when processed for food or when they are euthanized for any other reason.

· The Animal Welfare Guidelines and Audit Checklist should be reviewed every two to three years.

The specific applications of these criteria should be spelled out in these guidelines and the checklist should be used to assess compliance.

Poultry producers & processors endorsing these guidelines must designate a management person or group within the company responsible for promoting adherence to the guidelines.

Animal Welfare Guidelines for Poultry:

The best practices with respect to animal welfare for broiler production and processing should be categorized into the following sections:

1.      Farmers or Corporate Commitment

2.      Personnel Training

3.      Hatchery Operations

4. Growing Operations: This should include farm management, training of people, Bio-security Emergency Plan, Nutrition and Feeding, Poultry Housing Comfort and Shelter and Health Care and clear guidelines for monitoring and flock Husbandry.

5.      Catching and Transportation

6.      Processing Operations

7.      Abuse and Audit Failure

Without making detailed guidelines and simply mentioning that welfare guidelines must be implemented will not make any sense because there will be many questions which must be answered by people those who are drafting the animal welfare guidelines.

Points to be considered before drafting the guidelines:

Any guidelines will have economic, technical and financial implications. Any attempt to make guidelines without the involvement of stakeholders will lead to confusion and will lead to failure.

Successful implementation will happen when there is commitment at all levels and this cannot be imposed.

The buyers and the supplying companies must have a written animal welfare program that provides a clear understanding of how the program is to be implemented throughout the company.

What should be the pricing differential between the farms following good animal welfare practices? This will make all the efforts meaningful.

Current political leadership, policy makers and senior management must endorse and fully-support the animal welfare program in terms of budget allocation and land allocation if required. Otherwise, this may hurt both supplies of product from the poultry farms in terms of both quantity, quality and cost.

The animal husbandry departments and companies must have a person or management group responsible for animal welfare throughout the operation.

The buyers and supplier companies must develop an internal system to implement and document an internal and an external auditing program.

There must be a mechanism at government and at the company level which must have a mechanism in place whereby animal welfare violations can be reported without the threat of retaliation.

Education, training of all the supply chain participants will be essential. Public hoardings and signs stating the importance of animal welfare with contact information for reporting incidents should be posted prominently in locations where birds are handled and transported.

Caution: Animal welfare guidelines must not be a copy of what other countries are doing because many NGOs will try to push the agenda to make the poultry product expensive so that their donors do not face competition from India in the world market. These guidelines should not become non-tariff barriers for anyone.

It is important for us to understand simply making guidelines or passing law will not help. We have seen how dowry act, child labor act, and other laws became ineffective due to lack of public participation. Policymakers must also keep an eye on the politics of trade. Animal Welfare guidelines should not become a tool in the hands of foreign-funded NGOs to hurt the livelihood of millions of poor farmers and at the same time cost of production should not in a case which can hurt food and nutrition security of India.

Any suggestion from NGOs must be backed by economic implications and there must be a logical evaluation of cost and benefit implications for society at large.

I hope sensible and logical discussions will decide the practical aspects of animal welfare guidelines. In case any professional inputs are required, decision-makers can approach the author as well.