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Farm animals

Battery hens

Broiler chickens

Dairy

Mulesing

Pigs

Live export

Humane food

Battery hens

Most of Australia’s eggs are produced in cage or battery systems, which are a cheap and efficient way to produce a high quantity of eggs. Sadly though, this efficiency comes at the cost of hen welfare.

A battery hen lives in a cage for her entire life, confined to a wire floor space the size of an A4 piece of paper. Living in such a small space, this hen is unable to stretch her wings which eventually causes her crippling and painful injuries and deformities to her feet and legs. This hen is also unable to express important natural behaviours such as perching, preening, scratching in the dirt, dust-bathing or laying eggs in seclusion.

A battery hen can also suffer from painful de-feathering as her feathers rub painfully against the wire enclosure. With no exercise, a battery hen will develop weak and brittle bones and is at a high risk of osteoporosis. More than 56% of caged hens suffer from painful fractures.

Beak trimming

Beak trimming involves the partial removal of the bird's upper and lower beak (not the whole beak) either with a hot blade, a laser or infrared technology.
The beak becomes blunt and, when pecking other birds, there is no or very little impact.

The RSPCA believes preferable options for the management of feather pecking and cannibalism are the selection of less aggressive bird strains and use of alternative flock management practices.

For further information visit our knowledge base.

Protecting the welfare of hens

Only egg producers meeting very high welfare standards are able to use the RSPCA Approved Farming logo on their eggs. Eggs produced in battery facilities do not meet these high standards due to their cruel practices and living conditions.

The RSPCA works tirelessly to influence consumers to support ethical producers of eggs. We have also successfully campaigned in Victoria for clear labeling so consumers can confidently distinguish between cage eggs, barn-laid eggs, or free-range egg.

Take action

Sign up to receive updates
Show you care for hens and sign up to receive updates on our battery hen campaign here.
Approved Farming Scheme
Look for the RSPCA's 'Paw of Approval' when you next shop at Coles supermarket.

For more information, visit our humane food page.

Broiler chickens

Every year in Australia more than 320 million chickens are raised for meat production. Broiler chickens are essentially baby birds with the bodies of adults. These birds have developed from years of selective breeding and their development is achieved with the addition of growth stimulants to feed.

A typical broiler facility may house 300,000 birds at a time with 40,000 - 60,000 birds living on each shed floor.

Welfare concerns
The accelerated growth rates for these chickens causes leg and joint problems.
In some cases their legs cannot support their body weight and the chickens starve or dehydrate as they are unable to access the automated feed and water systems found in the sheds.

These birds are not afforded the Five Freedoms, including the inability to express normal behaviour. Overcrowding is a major problem in these intensive facilities as each bird has the equivalent of 500 square centimeters floor space, less than the size of an A4 page. The sheds are dimmed to keep the birds as inactive as possible so that food conversion is maximised. The birds’ droppings are not cleaned away over the chickens’ five to seven week lifespan. The air often becomes polluted with ammonia, dust, bacteria and fungal spores which cause health problems.

The RSPCA works tirelessly to encourage consumers to source their chicken from ethical suppliers. Consumers looking for the RSPCA Paw of Approval will rest assured that their chickens are produced in facilities upholding better welfare standards.

Take action

Approved Farming Scheme
Look for the RSPCA's 'Paw of Approval' when you next shop.

For more information, visit our humane food page.

Dairy industry

Humans often underestimate the intelligence of cows. Cows are highly social animals who can recognise more than 100 different individuals and form strong, lifelong bonds with their families and other herd members.

Bobby calves

Bobby calves are the sad waste product of the dairy industry. Like all mammals, cows only produce milk to feed their babies. After a cow gives birth her calf is usually taken away within 12-24 hours. This causes great distress to both the calf and the mother.

Just like humans and many other mammals, cows have a strong bond between mother and baby. Cows have been known to bellow for days after their calves have been taken away. Many of these calves are induced prematurely as a way of keeping milking herds on a uniform milk production cycle. The male calves are usually separated from their mothers at a little more than a day old. At around four days old these calves are then transported to an abattoir to be slaughtered for veal. Around one million of these calves, the sad waste products of the dairy industry, are killed every year in Australia.

The dairy industry recently proposed a maximum time off feed for bobby calves of 30 hours. This proposal was taken to the Primary Industries Ministerial Council (PIMC) who failed to reach a resolution and did not set legal protections for bobby calves. The dairy industry is voluntarily committing to a 30 hour maximum time period between feeds for transport of bobby calves to slaughter. However, the RSPCA believes that 30 hours off feed is far too long as the welfare of bobby calves begins to deteriorate after 24 hours off feed. Europe has a 10 hour off feed limit, while the UK and Canada have 12 hour off feed limits.

Milk production

As a result of selective breeding and genetic manipulation, the modern dairy cow produces 10 times more milk than a calf would need. This creates a great pressure on the cows’ udders and many cows suffer from painful conditions such as stretched or torn ligaments and mastitis, a painful infection of the teat and udder.

Disbudding

Young female calves are usually ‘disbudded’ to prevent them from growing horns. This is done by applying heat cauterization to the horn buds or by using a knife to cut off the tissue of the horn bud. This procedure is done with out pain relief while the young cow is restrained in a crush.

Take action

Approved Farming Scheme
The RSPCA Paw of Approval is only found on products that have come from animals that are part of the RSPCA Approved Farming Scheme.

If you see the paw on eggs, pork or chicken, you can be assured of a high standard of animal welfare.

Learn More
To learn more about what the RSPCA Australia is doing on dairy welfare, click here.

Mulesing

Most Australian sheep are subjected to mulesing. Merino sheep have woolly wrinkles and folds in their skin which become moist with urine and contaminated with faeces around the tail and breech area. Flystrike occurs when blowflies lay eggs on this moist area and the resulting maggots eat away at the flesh of the animal.

Mulesing involves cutting skin and flesh from sheep's backsides without anesthetic. Mulesed lambs experience high levels of pain and distress not only during the mulesing procedure, but for long periods afterwards. Lambs’ cortisol and beta-endorphin levels, indicators of stress, escalate when they are mulesed and are elevated for days. Mulesed lambs can exhibit abnormal, stress-related behaviours for up to 100 days following the procedure.

Mulesing is used because it is cheaper and easier for producers than other forms of management such as good breeding, inspection and crutching. While flystrike is a terrible affliction for sheep, mulesing is a cruel solution. Mulesing should be the last option farmers choose to control flystrike and only when the risk of flystrike is very high.

Alternatives to mulesing

There are humane alternatives to mulesing that do not cause suffering or distress:

Breeding
Breeding is the only long-term solution to flystrike. Genetic traits such as no wrinkles around the breech and tail, susceptibility to diarrhoea and worms and the amount of wax and moisture in the fleece can be bred out of merino flocks. Results of breeding trials over many years are positive and the work is being scaled up.

Clips
Clips give a result like mulesing, but without an open wound and with significantly less pain. They prevent blood flow to the skin that would be removed by mulesing. This skin and the clips fall off within a couple of weeks leaving a bare area around the lamb’s breech and tail. Trials with clips are progressing well. Some producers report they feel confident they could stop mulesing and use clips to control flystrike.

Information

Pig Welfare

Introduction
Pigs are intelligent, social animals, with a complex range of behaviours and needs. The RSPCA believe that pigs should have the freedom to socialise, explore and root in straw or dirt and to live a life free from cruelty. In conventional pig farming pigs are often subjected to painful husbandry procedures like tail docking, surgical castration and teeth clipping without anaesthetic. However, the biggest welfare problem facing Australian pigs is intensive confinement in sow stalls and farrowing crates.

Sow Stalls and Farrowing Crates
A sow stall is a metal-barred crate that houses a single sow for all or part of her 16-week pregnancy. Sows are confined from 8-10 months of age, day and night, with little room to stand or lie down.The floor of the stall is usually concrete, with a slat-covered trench for manure at the rear.

When a pregnant sow is ready to give birth, she is transferred a few days before to a very small farrowing crate that is designed to separate a mother from her piglets so she does not crush them. The sow is confined in the crate until the piglets are weaned. The movement of the sow is extremely restricted in these crates.

Sow stalls do not provide nesting or bedding material for the pregnant sow, which results in stress and frustration. Pigs are very social animals and preventing them from interacting with other pigs results in frustration and distressed behaviors such as head swaying and biting the metal bars. Because movement is severely restricted in sow stalls, the lack of exercise often leads to reduced muscle and bone strength and difficulty in standing up or lying down.
Alternatives to Sow Stalls and Farrowing Crates
Producers have long argued the stalls are necessary to control sows that become aggressive during pregnancy. But pregnant sows can be held successfully in groups provided that they are properly managed, have sufficient space and the ability to avoid aggressive encounters.

There are a number of experimental designs that have adapted the traditional farrowing crate to provide bedding and more flexibility and movement for the sow, while maintaining a high level of protection for the piglets. There are also extensive systems in use where farrowing takes place in individual huts with bedding, where the sow is free to move around and go in and out of the hut.

The RSPCA commends Coles Supermarkets on their commitment to stop stocking pork produced from pigs confined to sow stalls, from 2014. As a major retailer, Coles move towards sow stall-free pork sends the strongest signal yet that there is simply no place for sow stalls in the future of Australian pig farming. To have a meaningful impact on pig welfare we need humane pork products on every supermarket shelf across the country.

Recent Updates
In response to consumer pressure, Tasmania’s Primary Industries Minister Bryan Green announced in June 2010 that sow stalls will be banned in Tasmania; stalls are being phased out with a total ban becoming effective in 2017.

In Victoria, no such moves to ban sow stalls have been made, although at the national level, a non-binding agreement by members of the Australian pork industry was reached in November 2010 to voluntarily phase out sow stall use by 2017.

In other updates, in November 2011 PrimeSafe, the Victorian Government body responsible for regulating abattoirs, actioned the immediate closure of the LE Giles abattoir in Gippsland. Their license to operate was cancelled permanently. This occurred after video footage taken by Animals Australia showed deliberate cruelty towards the pigs processed at that facility. The footage revealed abattoir workers were in breach of the model code of practice for the welfare of animals, and had enacted deliberate cruelty through use of electric stunning to pigs eyes and noses. Whilst this cruelty was illegal, the auditing processes had failed to detect this inconsistency. RSPCA Victoria understands that the Department of Primary Industries has since launched a full investigation into the slaughter practices at this particular facility, and the auditing processes which allowed it to occur.

RSPCA Approved Farming Scheme
As consumers learn more about how their food is produced and about the animals that provide it, demand for higher welfare pork continues to gain support in the mainstream. We know that two thirds of Australians don’t like sow stalls and prefer to buy pork from humane farming systems. To this end, the RSPCA promotes humane food nationally via the RSPCA Approved Farming Scheme.

This involves working primary producers to implement higher standards of animal welfare, and is just one of the ways that the RSPCA promotes higher standards of farm animal welfare. If you see the RSPCA logo on a carton of eggs, packet of pork, chicken or turkey when shopping, you can be assured that product supports animal welfare. Find where to purchase RSPCA approved products.

Information

Live export

Information

Take Action
Ask the Government to put the welfare of Australian animals first and ban the cruel live export trade.

Email the Prime Minister.

Email Senator Joe Ludwig

Contact your local MP.

Latest News

12 December 2012

Last night, ABC’s 7:30 revealed more shocking cruelty to Australian animals exported live overseas. Harrowing scenes from an Israeli abattoir showed sheep and cattle being beaten, thrown, electrocuted repeatedly with an electric prodder to their eyes and genitals, and cattle unable to stand being dragged by a forklift.

Shockingly, this abattoir was approved under the Governments Exporter Supply Chain Assurance Scheme (ESCAS) just weeks earlier, casting a huge shadow over the entire supply chain assurance system. It is clear that Government safeguards are not protecting our animals and the only way to really ensure Australian animals are treated humanely is to end the cruel live export trade.

You can help. Take action now by sending a message to Senator Ludwig telling him all you want for Christmas is an end to live export. Please ask your friends and family to do the same – together we can end the cruellest trade this country has ever known, and give our animals the protection they deserve.

8 November 2012

On Four Corners' last episode for 2012, reporter Sarah Ferguson once again exposed the horrors of the live export industry, and what can happen to Australian animals once they leave our shores. Following on from the 2011 report which showed Australian cattle being brutally and inhumanely slaughtered in Indonesia, we were once again reminded of the risks to Australian livestock exported overseas.

‘Another Bloody Business’ detailed the shocking culling of Australian sheep in Pakistan, after their shipment was rejected by Bahrain. Importer Wellard then sent the 21,000 sheep to a feedlot in Pakistan, where they were ordered to be culled by local authorities. What followed was truly horrific. The sheep had their throats cut while fully conscious, and were thrown into pits, one on top of the other. Many were buried alive.

The Australian Government cannot allow this cruelty to continue. The live export trade is fraught with risk, from the time animals board the ship to the moment they are slaughtered. Despite government assurances, the cruelty to our animals continues. Compromising animal welfare in the interest of profit is morally unacceptable and if this Government truly cares about animal welfare, then it is time for them to end this cruel trade once and for all.

You can take action now and demand that the Australian Government takes immediate action to protect our animals.

Contact Senator Joe Ludwig, Minister for Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry
Contact your local MP.

The cruelest trade Australia has ever known
The live export trade is an industry where millions of Australian animals are exported live to other countries for slaughter. Australian cattle, sheep and goats are sent all over the world, ending up in countries where local laws do not protect them.

In May 2011, live export hit the headlines after investigations revealed horrific footage of Australian cattle being brutally slaughtered in Indonesian abattoirs. The community was outraged and what was to follow would lead Parliamentary debate over the issue of live export. More than 200,000 people signed a petition calling for the immediate ban of the trade and thousands attended National rallies, forcing the Prime Minister to take immediate action, introducing a temporary ban on the trade just eight days after the footage aired.

In a move to protect Australian cattle from the brutality of inhumane slaughter practices overseas, the Federal Government implemented its Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System (ESCAS). However investigations have shown this system is failing our animals.

In recent weeks we have been once again reminded of the brutality that often awaits Australian animals exported overseas for slaughter.

Shocking footage aired on Lateline showed Australian sheep being brutally slaughtered in Al Rai market in Kuwait, and more recently we have heard horrifying reports of thousands of sheep being brutally killed in Pakistan – some buried alive. One reporter from Pakistan was quoted as saying "These bodies piled on top of each other in that small hole and it was filled in a matter of minutes. I could see the animal breathe. And yet that animal was lying on a pile of recently slaughtered sheep."

It’s clear the Government can not protect our animals once they leave Australian shores, and that as long as the live export of cattle and sheep continues, animals will suffer brutal and prolonged deaths.

RSPCA Victoria is calling on the Gillard Government to put animal welfare first and end the live export of Australian animals overseas.

Take action now and tell the Government to protect our animals and ban live export.

Contact the Prime Minister:

The Hon Julia Gillard MP
Prime Minister
Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT 2600

Email the Prime Minister.

Find your local MP.

Humane food

The RSPCA works with farmers, retailers and consumers on a range of exciting humane initiatives. We actively promote animal welfare products through the RSPCA Approved Farming Scheme and Choose Wisely.

Approved Farming Scheme
The RSPCA Approved Farming Scheme works closely with farmers to make a positive impact on the lives of farm production animals.

To gain RSPCA Approval, farms must provide an environment that meets the animal’s behavioural and physiological needs. Eligible farmers are only approved if they are able to meet the high standards of welfare required and farms are regularly assessed by the RSPCA to ensure these conditions are maintained on farm.

Visit the national RSPCA Approved Farming Scheme website for more information.

Choose Wisely
Do you know a café or restaurant that uses humane food? Can you tell them about Choose Wisely? Or, are you a business owner interested in supporting humane food? As savvy consumers become more ethically and environmentally aware, businesses stand to gain more business and a point of difference from competitors by supporting humane food.

All businesses registered with our Choose Wisely initiative are listed on the national Choose Wisely website. RSPCA Victoria will also encourage our wide network of supporters, as well as 26,000+ facebook fans and local media to promote and support businesses that Choose Wisely.

Visit the national RSPCA Choose Wisely website for more information.

Shop
Next time you’re shopping remember to purchase RSPCA Approved products. Eggs and meat approved under the RSPCA Approved Farming Scheme have been produced humanely and you'll be helping to improve the lives of Australian farm animals.

RSPCA Approved products are available at supermarkets and butchers. You’ll know you’re buying a RSPCA approved product when you see the RSPCA 'Paw of Approval' (see right).

If you see the RSPCA logo on a carton of eggs, packet of pork, chicken or turkey, you can be assured that animals involved in the production of these products were raised under high animal welfare standards. These include:

Eggs – Coles Barn Laid
Pork – Otway Pork
Pork – KR Castlemaine, available in selected Coles stores in NSW and SA, and Mt Mercer Pork, available in Ritchie’s IGA stores in VIC.
Chicken– Coles Bendigo Valley

Visit the national RSPCA Shop Humane website for more information

Recent developments
We're pleased to report that Woolworths has decreased the amount of cage egg brands stocked on their shelves from 20 down to 11, due to consumer preference and their written concerns on animal safety. This demonstrates that Australia's leading organisations will support humane food if there is enough consumer demand. Please make sure you speak with your local supermarket manager or contact their head office in regards to humane food.

Information

Animal Hoarding
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Cat Welfare
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Testing on animals
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Horse Welfare
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Puppy Factories
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Duck Shooting
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Tags: farm animals; bobby calves; dairy industry; dairy welfare; animal weflare; live export; live animal export; battery hens; broiler chickens; mulesing; sow stalls; free range; free range eggs