animal welfare

Overview

Indicators

• Sales of products from animals reared to accredited farm assurance standards
• Sales of Humane Cosmetics Standard and Humane Household Products Standard accredited toiletry and household products

Background

Over 800 million broiler chickens2 and 9.2 million pigs3 are produced in the UK every year. In addition, there are around 30 million hens involved in egg production4. To meet this level of production, most modern farms operate intensive systems. Factors such as price still remain the priority for the majority of food shoppers; however, a growing number are concerned about intensive production methods and seek to support products that guarantee higher standards of animal welfare.

Animals have not been used to test cosmetic products or ingredients in the UK since 1998. The Seventh Amendment of the EU Cosmetics Directive banned animal testing of finished cosmetic products and cosmetic ingredients in the EU from March 2009.

However, the practice is continued elsewhere in the world, and the sale of animal-tested products in the UK will not be fully phased out until 2013. Animal testing for household products, foodstuffs, food additives and a variety of other consumer products is still permitted in the UK and elsewhere – in 2007, 766 procedures were undertaken relating to food additives and 8,380 relating to other foodstuffs in Great Britain5.

Materiality and strategy

In the 2007 Co‑operative Food Ethical Policy consultation members endorsed a number of animal welfare commitments for inclusion in the policy:

• Continue to extend the range of products that meet higher animal welfare standards;
• Ensure all fresh products comply, as a minimum, with relevant UK farm assurance standards;
• Continue to take the lead on the opposition to the use of animals for the testing of own-brand toiletries, cosmetics or household cleaning products (or ingredients therein); and
• Continue to exclude fur from all products.

Animal welfare is also an integral part of the customer-mandated ethical policies of The Co‑operative Bank and The Co‑operative Insurance; both identify intensive farming, animal testing for toiletries and household products, blood sports, and the fur trade as issues of concern6. As a result of the bank's latest Ethical Policy consultation a new position was adopted to exclude finance to organisations involved in the exploitation of great apes, whether in experimentation or general commercial use.

Achievements

1990 Announces that no own-brand toiletry products, or ingredients, will contain items tested on animals after 1985.