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Responsible Animal Treatment

Producing the highest-quality, brand-name foods and meat products for consumers throughout the world starts with industry-leading animal welfare and husbandry practices. For more than 117 years, Hormel Foods has focused on treating animals humanely because it is the right thing to do.

We base our animal husbandry practices on the best scientific data available, new technologies and hands-on experience. The combination of these factors allows us to have a consistent, successful and measurable animal welfare program. Throughout this section of the report, we outline our commitment and policies related to animal welfare and husbandry for both hogs and turkeys.

Raising our Animals: Husbandry

Our commitment to ensuring all animals are raised in a healthy environment and treated properly starts with training, reinforcement and knowledge of each person’s skills while he or she interacts with each hog and turkey. We expect training and proper animal management to be the foundation of each production facility’s culture and reinforced daily in the behavior exhibited by all employees. Our hogs and turkeys come from both company-owned farms and independent family farms. We hold our company management staff and the independent producers who supply animals to Hormel Foods to high standards. We also encourage employees at company farms and at independent family farms to hold each other accountable for proper animal handling techniques.

To protect our animals from extreme weather conditions, predators and disease, the hogs and turkeys are raised in barns with climate-controlled environments. Within these facilities, 100 percent of the market hogs for Hormel Foods are housed in group pens and 100 percent of the turkeys raised by Jennie-O Turkey Store are housed in open barns.

Antibiotics

Through each phase of production, we expect employees at our farms and producers that supply hogs and turkeys to Hormel Foods to practice the judicious use of antibiotics, as outlined in industry programs, such as the National Pork Board’s “Take Care. Use Antibiotics Responsibly” or the American Veterinarian Medical Association's “Principles of Judicious Therapeutic Use of Antimicrobials.” Licensed veterinarians prescribe approved medications and dosage levels to properly treat, control and prevent illness in animals. Furthermore, all animal medications are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration.

In addition to endorsing the “Take Care. Use Antibiotics Responsibly” program from the National Pork Board, Hormel Foods requires all producers to sign the company’s “Quality Assurance Program” document, which requires that all hog producers who supply hogs to Hormel Foods and employees of these producers who work with hogs to be certified in Pork Quality Assurance (PQA^®) Plus^® by Dec. 31, 2009. This program focuses on 10 good production practices (GPP), which includes a chapter about proper antibiotic use. An additional six GPPs cover topics about medication.

At company-owned hog and turkey operations, we have eight licensed veterinarians who are responsible for overseeing the direction and management of all livestock health assurance programs. At our hog operations, the veterinarians are responsible for ensuring that the guidelines outlined by “Take Care. Use Antibiotics Responsibly” are followed and that all employees who work with animals are PQA Plus^® certified.

In January 2008, we voluntarily started an additional verification process to test for antibiotic residues at the Hormel Foods Austin, MN, Plant. Each day, random hog carcasses are tested for the presence of antibiotic residues. At the end of fiscal year 2008, more than 950 tests were completed, with 100 percent of the tests showing no volatile residues. In 2009, the company plans to implement this testing at another facility. In addition to the company-administered tests, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspectors also check random hog carcasses for the presence of antimicrobial residues to ensure suppliers providing hogs to Hormel Foods are using antibiotics responsibly. At the end of fiscal year 2008, 100 percent of the USDA tests also showed no volatile residues.

Animal Welfare Research/Innovation and Investment

At Hormel Foods, we continually evaluate, invest and develop new ways to improve our hog and turkey handling processes.

In 2008, we opened a state-of-the-art hog holding facility at the plant in Austin, MN. This expansion and renovation to the existing livestock yard brought many changes to improve animal welfare and improved working conditions for employees. A few highlights include:

• Increased resting and recovery period after transporting and unloading for each hog from two hours to five hours;
• Decreased the walking distance the animal is required to travel and landscaped the area to be flat;
• Improved animal comfort and well-being through controlled in-floor heat, overhead sprinkler systems for cooling and optimum overhead lighting; and
• Designed the new facility to be more conducive to animal and people interaction.

We are also pleased to be a leader in improving turkey handling and have received a patent for our processes. One area of improvement involved placing turkeys into specifically designed pens with minimal handling as they are loaded onto trucks. This process reduces risk of injury and stress for the turkeys while also minimizing potential injury among workers because they are no longer lifting the turkeys. In addition, many processes in our breeder farms are automated, which reduces the stress on the turkeys.

At our processing plants, we invest in employee training to ensure workers are educated about the proper way to handle and move animals throughout our facilities. All personnel involved in receiving hogs and turkeys at our processing facilities are routinely trained to guarantee proper and humane handling of all animals. We also require that these employees review and agree to follow a “Personal Pledge of Conduct” on a quarterly basis. This document outlines principles for animal welfare and handling.

In addition to training, we conduct routine audits at our facilities and hire third-party auditors. We use information from each audit to continuously improve our animal handling procedures.

Documentation is an essential element of our training and auditing procedures. Within our records, we keep a copy of each audit report and a file for each employee that outlines his or her training and recertification qualifications.

Industry Representation

Industry representation in national and local organizations helps Hormel Foods share ideas and best practices within the food industry regarding animal welfare and handling and humane processing. We are proud to have a representative serving as a member, as an officer or on the board of directors of various industry organizations, which include:

• Alliance for the Future of Agriculture in Nebraska
• American Association of Avian Pathologists
• American Association of Swine Veterinarians
• American Meat Institute Animal Handling Committee
• American Meat Institute Foundation Research Advisory Committee
• American Veterinary Medical Association
• American Veterinary Medicine Association Animal Agriculture Liaison Committee
• Animal Agriculture Alliance
• Arizona Pork Council
• California Grain and Feed Association
• California Pork Producers Association
• Midwest Agri-Growth Council
• Midwest Food Processors Board of Directors
• Midwest Poultry Research Committee
• Minnesota Pork Producers Association
• Minnesota Turkey Federation Board of Directors
• Mower County Pork Producers
• National Feed and Grain Association
• National Pork Board
• National Turkey Federation’s Board of Directors
• National Turkey Federation’s Executive Committee
• National Turkey Federation’s Health and Welfare Committee
• National Turkey Federation’s Issues Management Committee
• National Turkey Federation’s Live Production Committee
• National Turkey Federation’s Technical and Regulatory Affairs Committee
• National Pork Producers Council
• Nebraska Pork Producers Association
• Professional Animal Auditor Certification Organization
• State of Wisconsin Livestock Facility Siting Review Board
• Texas Tech International Center for Food Industry Excellence Board of Directors
• University of Wisconsin Poultry Science Advisory Committee
• United States Animal Health Association
• Wyoming Pork Producers Association

Industry Collaboration

Treating animals humanely is simply the right thing to do. This philosophy carries through in our openness to share our company’s best practices and state-of-the-art facility designs with other companies and individuals involved in the industry. We accomplish this through hosting representatives for first-hand tours of facilities, industry presentations and industry collaboration. Within the hog and turkey industries, Hormel Foods is seen as a leader for developing and implementing animal welfare and handling procedures.

For example, we support and participate in the Professional Animal Auditors Certification Organization (PAACO) by inviting trainers and trainees to visit and see first-hand our hog facilities and turkey facilities as part of the real-world training component of the program. Started in 2004, PAACO was developed to promote the humane treatment of animals through education and certification of animal auditors. An individual becomes a certified auditor after completing in-depth, on-site training and by passing a comprehensive exam. After receiving certification, these individuals then conduct science-based audits. Four members of the Jennie-O Turkey Store team are PAACO-certified auditors with a fifth individual in the process of obtaining certification.

To support continuing research within the turkey industry, Jennie-O Turkey Store provides support to the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association, the Minnesota Turkey Research and Promotion Council and the National Turkey Federation.

Hogs

To ensure the requirements at Hormel Foods for animal handling and welfare are upheld, we outline qualifications in our Quality Assurance program that employees at company-owned hog operations and independent producers who supply hogs to the company are required to follow.

Turkeys

We establish clear, simple guidelines and closely monitor adherence to those guidelines to ensure standards are being upheld every step of the way when raising, transporting and processing turkeys at Jennie-O Turkey Store.