SPCA campaign kicks off to boost animal welfare

The SPCA and Healthy Food Guide nutritionist Claire Turnbull are calling for people to support humane meat and egg farming practices with the launch of the SPCA Blue Tick animal welfare awareness campaign.

The SPCA Blue Tick is New Zealand’s only 100 per cent independent accreditation scheme for animal welfare applied to egg and meat production, the SPCA Blue Tick website explains.

Blue tick accreditation goes beyond often ‘meaningless marketing terms’ such as ‘free range’ or ‘free to roam’ which is not regulated, and just a style of farming with no assurance of high animal welfare, the website says.

As an SPCA goodwill ambassador, Ms Turnbull is calling on people to make a pledge to ‘go SPCA Blue Tick’, purchasing products that display the blue tick.

The Blue Tick standards are a set of guidelines based on scientific evidence, best practice farming methods and international benchmarking on eggs, chicken, pork and turkey products.

Meat and eggs are an excellent source of nutrition, which can be enjoyed as part of a healthy diet, but when included in our diet, it is our responsibility to ensure we support high animal welfare farmed products, Ms Turnbull says.

“Consumers today are also taking a greater interest in the quality and the provenance of the food they eat – and they are sharing their mindful choices through social media in addition to the traditional ‘word of mouth’,” Blue Tick business unit manager Ségolène de Fontenay says,

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