ANIMAL WELFARE
Here at Smile Planet Farm, our employees clearly understand the important contribution that our breeding flocks play in the national agricultural value chain process for homes and business. To that end, we are committed to the humane and respectful treatment of each and every bird in our care. All of our employees are expected to be advocates for animal welfare.
We have developed and implemented welfare policies that cover all aspects of bird management. Our employees and cooperators are specifically trained on the proper methods of handling birds to minimize distress or injury. Vaccinations against important poultry diseases and free access to nutritionally balanced diets are provided, giving our birds a healthy and safe living environment. Our flocks are under the supervision of caring veterinarians, nutritionists and flock supervisors at all times.
In addition, our breeding program incorporates welfare in numerous ways and evaluates a wide range of natural bird traits (such as egg production, fitness, life expectancy, behaviour, disease resistance and egg quality). The overall goal of our breeding program is to produce a robust commercial bird which performs well under a vast range of physical environments world-wide with the least impact on the environment as possible. Smile Planet does not use any type of “Genetically Modified Organism” or cloning anywhere in our breeding program. Rather, we only use established and universally accepted methods of natural genetic variation, evaluation and selection in our birds.
WELFARE GOALS AND PRINCIPLES
To promote animal well-being and produce birds of the highest quality, we adhere to the following welfare goals and principles. These goals and principles are the essential building blocks for the humane and professional care of our birds:
REPORTING VIOLATIONS
In the event that any member of the general public may witness purposeful or willful neglect or abuse of our birds by employees, they may send a confidential email incident report to info@smileplanetf.com. Sufficient details (your name & telephone callback number, who, what, when & where, etc.) are needed in order for our quality control team to act accordingly. If violations of our welfare policies occur and are witnessed by Smile Planet employees, then they are strictly required to report any abuse or violations of policies to any Manager.