Are Cows Treated Well Enough?

Dr. Robin R. Ganzert, President & Chief Executive Officer

Modern food systems are safe, abundant, and affordable – and today’s consumers are increasingly demanding that animals are

humanely raised.

In 2000, to ensure that ethical, humane principles are being followed, American Humane created the American Humane Certified™ program, the first third-party

animal welfare certification audit program in the United States.

“Working with…American Humane Association (AHA) has been one of our most significant partnerships to date. We worked together,

along with our dairy families, to help create the standards. These informative discussions in the living rooms of our dairy families led to the AHA

creating the Five Freedoms of Animal Welfare program standards. These animal

welfare program standards set the benchmark for standards that the AHA still uses today.”

- Marcus Benedetti, President & Chief Executive Officer, Clover Stornetta Farms

The Five Freedoms

• Freedom from hunger and thirst• Freedom from discomfort

• Freedom from pain, injury or disease• Freedom from fear and distress

• Freedom to express normal behaviors

Five Freedoms: The Gold Standard of Animal Welfare

What differentiates an American Humane Certified dairy cow...

• Treated humanely: American Humane standards require written Standard Operating Procedures for safe and efficient handling of all cattle and specific SOPs for handling sick or injured animals.

• Rigorous health management: Written herd health plan required; antibiotics permitted only for therapeutic reasons as prescribed by herd veterinarian; use of growth promoters/growth hormones is prohibited.

• Well-fed and comfortable: Written nutrition plan required. Cattle must have access to well-drained, well-maintained lying area with dry bedding, of sufficient size to accommodate all cattle lying together. Each cow must have 24” of feed bunk space.

• Thoroughly inspected: All cattle must be checked twice daily.

• Udder health: Policy for control of mastitis required with Somatic Cell Count catalogued.

• No tail docking: Tail docking is prohibited.

• Well-trained workers: Training at orientation to be followed up yearly; specialized training for calvingand handling newborn calves as well as other training specifications.

• Space standards in excess of industry norms: in free stalls, stocking density must be one cow peravailable stall i.e. no more than 100% stocking density.

• Mandatory auditor evaluations for: Lameness/locomotion score (pass/fail); hygiene score; legcondition score; coat condition score; tail condition score; body condition score (pass/fail).

• Audit (not assessment or self- assessment): 3rd party, independently-scored audit conducted bytrained auditors: 114 audit items for a total of 1354 total points. Must receive a score of 85% to passwith a corrective action plan submitted within 10 days to address non-conformances and detail a planto achieve 100% compliance.

What differentiates an American Humane Certified dairy cow...

Bucher Farms video