Animal Welfare

Being a global leader in dairy processing comes with great responsibility, and we use it to promote appropriate animal care and handling practices.

Our Animal Welfare Policy sets out the animal care standards we expect our suppliers to comply with, in line with industry standards and Codes of Practices, and outlines clear protocols to effectively deal with suspected breaches.

We believe that high-quality dairy products begin with high-quality milk from healthy and well-cared-for animals.

Above this, we expect our suppliers to eliminate or modify routine management practices that are unnecessary or cause pain. These include the elimination of tail docking, the use of pain control when dehorning or disbudding cattle and goats, extra teat removal and castration, and the prohibited use of electric cattle pods for routine handling. We also ask that our suppliers implement appropriate animal care awareness and training programs, including a mandatory animal care Code of Conduct that is reviewed annually.

In addition to our Animal Welfare Policy, our Position Paper on Animal Health and Welfare Issues highlights our position on important animal health and welfare aspects of livestock production that are currently outside of the direct scope of our Animal Welfare Policy. We have made significant progress in advancing these positions in certain countries for some of these issues and will look to integrate some elements into further updates to our Policy.

Animal Welfare Committee

Our global Animal Welfare Committee oversees compliance of our standards, with members representing each country where we operate. It is comprised of Saputo internal senior leaders from our Governmental Affairs, Milk Procurement, Corporate Communications, and Sales teams. This Committee enables us to stay at the forefront of animal welfare best practices.

As part of applying our Animal Welfare Policy, the committee consults animal protection agencies, humane societies, governmental authorities, suppliers, and customers and works with animal welfare experts from different universities and veterinary colleges.