Castration without anaesthetics gaining ground
Two more Dutch companies have announced that they will stop selling meat products using meat from piglets that were castrated without anaesthetics.
Dutch snack food chain Febo announced this week that it will start selling meat with a special environmental certification mark as of January 2008. This completely bans the practice of male piglet castration.
The mark also ensures group sow housing, larger pens, energy-low pig houses, and high quality pig feed.
The initiative is carried out together with several environmental and welfare organisations, including De Hoeve, a farm chain for animal-friendly pig production in the Netherlands.
Snack manufacturer
In addition, the snack manufacturer Mora also announced it will stop using meat from piglets castrated without anaesthetics as of January 2009.
Repeated protests by welfare organisations have already encouraged many companies to take similar measures in 2007, including most of the Netherlands’ supermarket chains, chain store Hema and the Dutch division of McDonald’s.
Related news items:
• Dutch McDonald’s bans meat from castrated pigs (3 Oct 2007)
• End to sale of pigs castrated without sedation (15 June 2007)
Related websites:
• Febo (in Dutch)
• Mora (in Dutch)
• De Hoeve (in Dutch)
• Hema (in Dutch)
• McDonald’s (in Dutch)
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