Animal Care
Maple Leaf Foods’ strong values deeply define our culture. These values also guide how we raise and handle our animals.
Raising the Good in Food means caring about animal well-being. We aim to be a global leader in animal care in our quest to be the most sustainable protein company
on earth.
We have a responsibility to care for our animals
As part of our animal care commitment, we create a culture of caring and accountability. We embrace practices that enhance animal well-being, and we work closely with our producers, partners and suppliers to advance high standards of animal care throughout our supply chain.
Advancing animal care
We adhere to high standards of animal care
Many laws and Codes of Practice guide us on how we care for animals. But complying with these requirements is just the beginning for us – we aim to exceed them. We follow and use industry-leading practices across our operations that support our strategic priority to build a world-class animal care program.
Here are some examples of the kind of standards and practices we’ve implemented across our operations and our supply chain.
- Our Gestation Crate Free pork is sourced from farms where sows are free to roam, feed and socialize.
- Our plants and sites are designed to work with – not against – an animal’s natural instincts. Our people are trained in low-stress animal handling practices championed by leading animal care expert Temple Grandin, Ph.D., a member of our Animal Care Advisory Council.
- We use a state-of-the-art, third-party remote video auditing program at our hatcheries and plants to monitor care and handling, and to identify and correct problems promptly.
- Pigs at Canada Packers barns enjoy carefully selected toys called enrichments to encourage them to play and to improve their well-being. We’re also adding enrichments in our poultry operations to support natural chicken behaviours like pecking, perching, hiding, and resting.
- We provide broilers with enrichments to encourage them to play, to support their natural behaviour and to improve their mental well-being.
- We routinely assess chicken breeds to ensure we use the breeds that create healthy chickens with good welfare.
- We use climate-controlled trailers to protect chickens from extreme weather during transportation.
- We expect that commercial hog farmers in Canada will convert to group sow housing by July 1st, 2029, in accordance with the Canadian Pork Excellence PigCARE program. Maple Leaf’s goal is to source 100% of our pork from group sow housing systems and will continue working with Canada Packers to achieve that goal.
Animal Care Performance Report
We’re documenting our animal care goals and measuring our progress. See how we’re doing in our 2024 Animal Care Performance Report.
Animal care standards
Our animal care standards go above industry recommendations. Our team oversees programs that ensure we raise, transport, and handle animals at our plants in a humane way that minimizes stress. We measure our progress and we strive to improve our programs every day.
How we use antibiotics in the animals we raise
We are Canada’s largest producer of Raised Without Antibiotics chicken.
The animals in our Raised Without Antibiotics program never receive antibiotics for any purpose. If an animal becomes sick, our veterinarians may determine antibiotic treatment is the most humane option. When this occurs, the animals don’t enter our Raised Without Antibiotics product channel.
Our poultry welfare approach
Caring for the poultry we raise is a top priority of the work we do to protect the welfare of our animals. We’re focused on 13 areas of poultry health and welfare to make sure that birds are treated with care at all stages of chicken production.
Keeping our animals safe from disease
At Maple Leaf, we work hard to keep our animals healthy and safe from disease through comprehensive care managed by veterinarians and through our biosecurity practices that provide strong protection against animal diseases entering our operations.
All of our poultry are inspected by Canadian Food Inspection Agency veterinarians at our plants because only healthy animals may be processed for food.
When a disease has never occurred within Canada or when significant time has passed since it was detected, it is considered a Foreign Animal Disease. When it is diagnosed within our borders, it must be reported to the World Organization for Animal Health, which tracks animal diseases.
Some animal diseases are particularly devastating to animals such as, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, which can affect commercial poultry, wild birds, and other animals.
Integrated Report
We’re documenting all the changes we’re making. See our progress in our latest Integrated Report.