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Hormel® Natural Choice®
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Hormel Foods Position on Humane Handling
Sep 17, 2008
A video was released the evening of September 16, 2008 that showed images from a hog farm in Iowa. It is important to note that the farm in the video is not a Hormel Foods' farm and the people are not Hormel Foods' employees. We find the images in the video appalling and they are inconsistent with our standards and industry standards for animal handling.
The abuse on the video depicted practices that are completely unacceptable.
We expect all current suppliers to adhere to the proper animal handling standards from day one and continue to do so throughout our relationship. We are working with our supplier to ensure this activity is no longer taking place, and they are investigating this matter and will take appropriate disciplinary actions, including terminating employees. Underscoring our company's zero tolerance policy, we have in the past terminated employees, truckers and contracts with producers when animal welfare issues have arisen.
Animal welfare and animal husbandry have always been top priority at Hormel Foods. This is simply about treating animals humanely because it's the right thing to do. We take our zero tolerance policy for the inhumane treatment of animals very seriously and have implemented many standards outlined in our responsibility report - Hormel Foods Humane Handling statement .