Tims calls for end to use of pig crates
Sets deadline of 2022 to get pork from suppliers that don’t use cages
Canada’s largest fast-food chain has quietly stepped up its plans to stop dealing with suppliers that confine pregnant sows in crates.
In its annual corporate 2012 sustainability report, released this week, Tim Hortons committed to source pork from suppliers who have moved to better housing systems by 2022.
“We affirm our call for the pork industry to eliminate gestation stall practices for sows. By 2022, we intend to source pork from suppliers who have made a transition to alternative open housing,” the 4,000 store chain said in the report released Wednesday.
The move is being hailed by Canadian and U.S. humane societies as another major step toward ending a practice it calls one of the most critical animal welfare issues in food production.
Gestation crates are cages used to tightly confine breeding pigs to the point the animals are not even able to turn around, the humane societies said.
“Tim Hortons’ move supports the food industry’s rejection of gesta-
“We affirm our call for the pork industry to eliminate gestation stall practices for sows.”
TIM HORTONS REPORT
tion crates as irresponsible, unsustainable and inhumane,” said Matt Prescott, food policy director for farm animal protection for The Humane Societies of the United States. The move comes amid growing pressure from advocacy groups and consumers on food companies to address animal welfare issues. Many of Tim Hortons’ competitors in Canada and the U.S. have made similar announcements, including McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy’s, Costco and Safeway. “As an icon brand that’s well loved nationwide, when Tim Hortons says , ‘We’re getting rid of these cage for pigs,’ it sends a message to the pork industry, consumers and the public that it’s not okay to lock up an animal in a space the size of their body for their entire life,” Prescott said in an interview. Tim Hortons’ announcement comes as the Canadian pork industry is reviewing and revising its codes of practice and considering a nationwide phase-out of gestation crates. The draft code is expected out in June, said Sayara Thurston, campaigner for the Humane Societies International/Canada. It’s expected to address the use of gestation crates, she said. North America is lagging other ju- risdictions in this area, she said, which could have implications for pork exporters. Canadian pork producers send more than 50 per cent, or about $3 billion worth, of annual production outside the country.
The European Union outlawed the use of gestation crates effective Jan.1, 2013, after more than a decade of research.
Nine U.S. states have banned the practice, while Australia and New Zealand plan to phase them out by 2017 and 2015 respectively, she added. Some of Canada’s largest pork producers have also set their own deadlines, she said.
Maple Leaf Foods Inc. announced in 2007 it would gradually eliminate the use of gestation crates in its operations by 2017.
The most likely alternative is a group housing system that allows groups of pigs to be housed together in areas big enough to move and turn around, Prescott said.
The use of the crates became more widespread in the North American pork industry in the 1980s and 1990s.