American Humane Society, the United States’ first national humane organization and the world’s largest certifier of animal welfare practices, is proud to announce updated swine welfare standards as part of its comprehensive farm animal welfare certification program. These updated standards provide clear guidelines, scientifically backed welfare improvements, and outcome-based assessments to ensure the highest level of care for swine.
The American Humane Certified™ program utilizes rigorous, science-based, and comprehensive animal welfare criteria, reviewed by an independent Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) comprised of world-renowned leaders in the fields of animal science, veterinary medicine, and animal ethics. The independent, third-party audit program helps to verify that certified farms and processors are implementing management practices that promote animal welfare.
“Science and compassion must go hand in hand when it comes to animal welfare,” said Dr. Robin Ganzert, President and CEO of American Humane Society. “These new swine standards bring greater transparency, accountability, and science-based improvements to farm animal welfare—helping to ensure a brighter future for millions of animals.”
The new swine standards were informed by a comprehensive process that incorporated review of the latest swine scientific research, evaluation of industry best practices, feedback from animal welfare experts, and tests that applied the new measures in a real-world, on-farm setting.
“This initiative represents a major advancement in our science-driven approach to animal welfare,” said Dr. Tom Edling, Chief Veterinary Officer at American Humane Society. “By integrating the latest research and veterinary best practices, we are enhancing our certification program to help producers maintain a high standard of care.”
The new standards provide greater clarity for auditors and producers by establishing swine-specific welfare guidelines across multiple stages of swine production. They also introduce many updated animal outcome-based welfare indicators in accordance with the latest scientific recommendations, promoting an environment that reduces stress and improves overall well-being.
The updated American Humane Certified™ Animal Welfare Standards and Audit Tool for Swine identify and define key indicators to measure continuous welfare improvement and feature an updated scoring scale that further emphasizes outcome and environmental-based measures specific to animal welfare.
The updates also include expanded observations of animals, their environment, and standard operating procedures documentation during auditor evaluation of farms and transportation. More specifically, the updated standards include criteria that expand on provision of environmental enrichment and outline outcome-based metrics that directly assess and measure animal handling and loading. Some additions to the updated standards include incorporating internal auditing programs and a fire prevention plan.
The new standards will take effect starting October 1, 2025. For more information on the American Humane Farm Program, please visit: https://www.americanhumane.org/what-we-do/certify-humane-treatment/farms/
About American Humane Society
American Humane Society is the United States’ first national humane organization and the world’s largest certifier of animal welfare, helping to verify the humane treatment of more than one billion animals across the globe each year. Founded in 1877, American Humane Society has been at the forefront of virtually every major advancement in the humane movement to rescue, care for and protect animals. For more information or to support our life-changing work, please visit www.AmericanHumane.org, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram and subscribe to our channel on YouTube for the latest breaking news and features about the animals with whom we share our Earth.
