Live Animal Transport – Read all about our transport work here.

Mutilations – Painful interventions are carried out on poultry without anesthesia. 

Killing of Male Chicks – Billions of male chicks die every year for purely economic reasons. 

Stocking Density in the Stalls – Animals, that are not kept in cages, are commonly kept in an overstocked barn, which is a problem as crowd-induced stress is a common cause of death. 

Breeding for Extreme Performance – The laying performance of these animals has increased over the years through intensive breeding and highly concentrated feed. Read more about it here.

Laying Hens in Cages – Laying hens live crowded together on wire mesh floor, without daylight. Read more about different types of keeping here.

Mutilations – Goats are adapted to the farm environment, instead of vice versa. Read more about it here.

Separation of kids from their mothers (dairy goats) – Baby goats are separated from their mothers early in life for economic reasons. Farm animals form strong bonds with their offspring but are not always able to act out their natural instinctive behavior due to how they are kept, raised and slaughtered for human consumption.

Bad handling during shearing and combing in wool goats – Millions of goats suffer greatly as a part of the textile industry. Read more about what’s behind your cashmere and mohair sweaters.

Slaughter (developing countries) – Animals are commonly transported to developing countries that have lesser animal welfare regulations, allowing for inappropriate slaughter methods without prior stunning.

Live Animal Transport. Find out more!

Live Animal Transport – For more information click here.

Mutilations – Painful interventions are carried out on sheep without anesthesia. Read more about it here.

Separation of lambs from their mothers – Baby lambs are commonly separated from their mothers early in life for purely economic reasons.

Mulesing – A procedure during which strips of skin around a lamb's breech and tail are cut with shears, usually without any pain relief. Read more about our work here.

Bad handling during shearing – Over a hundred million sheep suffer greatly as a part of the textile industry. Read more about what’s behind your sheep wool sweaters here.

Slaughter – Animals are commonly transported to developing countries that have lesser animal welfare regulations, allowing for inappropriate slaughter methods without prior stunning.

Mutilations – Painful interventions are carried out on cattle without anesthesia. Read more about it here.

Concentrate Feeding – To compensate for high energy needs, animals are fed with a high concentrate feed, which causes problems for the animals, both in terms of physiological and mental health (by not being given the possibility to graze and ruminate).

Young Animals Kept in Isolation – More than 60% of all European dairy calves are not only separated from their mothers almost immediately after birth, but also individually housed during their first eight weeks. 

Tethering of the Animals – Tethering of cattle largely prevents behavior typical of the species. Behaviors such as movement, social behavior, comfort behavior, rest behavior are severely restricted, and the animals have no options for a needs-oriented day organization, preferred social partners and are unconditionally exposed to their housing environment. All of this has a lot of negative effects on their wellbeing status.

Breeding for Extreme Performance – Dairy cattle are bred for extremely high milk yield, which brings the cows to their physical limits: they suffer from life-threatening metabolic disorders and painful udder infections. On the other hand, the prevailing breeding objectives, such as good muscling and high daily weight gains directly cause health problems in beef cattle. Read more about it here.

Fully Slatted Flooring – Cattle – most commonly, beef cattle – are kept in many production systems on fully slatted floors without bedding and without a separate lying area. Inflammation of the joints and hoofs, calluses, and lameness are the most common visible diseases of inappropriate animal husbandry. 

Separation of Calf and Mother – To sell as much milk as possible, the cow and calf are separated from each other after a few hours or days and the calf is then usually given a bought-in milk substitute. This makes the calf more susceptible to illness, which, along with the stressful events reducing their immune response, is giving many calves a life-threatening diarrhea, resulting in a high mortality rate. 

Live Animal Transport. Find out more!

Mutilations – Intensive livestock farming does not take the natural instincts of pigs into account. Animals undergo many different painful procedures, often without any pain relief. Read more about it here.

High Intensive Concentrate Feeding – To compensate for high energy needs due to needed weight gain, animals are fed with a highly intensive concentrate feed, which causes many health problems for the animals.

Keeping Sows in Crates – Sows in conventional pig farms spend about half of their lives in tight-fitting metal cages which are supposedly preventing the sow from accidentally crushing the piglets after giving birth. But the real reason is economy – producing as many pigs as possible in the shortest possible time, in the smallest possible space. 

Fixation of the Animals. Learn more!

Breeding for Extreme Performance – Breeding for a high lean meat content, as well as the high daily weight gains, lead to disorders of the cardiovascular system and pathological joint changes in these intelligent animals. Read more about it here.

Fully Slatted Flooring – Inflammation of the joints and hoofs, calluses, and lameness are the most common visible diseases of inappropriate animal husbandry.

Live Animal Transport. Read more!

Keeping of (solitary) Muscovy ducks – They are solitary animals and prefer to live in trees and bushes, with their basic needs very far from industrial keeping systems. In general, we believe that no farm animals should be kept in such systems, but if we look at their ultimate basic needs, Muscovy ducks cannot be kept commercially in an animal welfare-friendly way.

Live Animal Transport – Read all about our transport work here.

Mutilations – Muscovy ducks will fight each other if kept in a barn system and are therefore commonly beak-trimmed to prevent serious injuries. Additionally, some animals undergo painful wing clipping.

No Water Access – Waterfowl need water to bathe themselves in, however, they are rarely provided with such opportunities in commercial keeping.

Force-feeding (foie gras) – A mixture of corn and pure fat is administered through a long pipe, rammed into the esophagus two to three times a day. This is intended to cause rapid weight gain. The liver is unable to properly process these large amounts of fat, resulting in abnormal storing of fat. By the end of their lives, the animals can hardly move independently. Read more about it here.

Stocking density in the stalls – Animals, that are not kept in cages, are commonly kept in an overstocked barn, which is a problem as crowd-induced stress is a common cause of death.

Live feather plucking – The animals (predominately geese) suffer dreadfully while their feathers and down are torn out, as workers pluck the animals to produce the most expensive and high quality down. Read more about it here.

Cage systems – Animals often live crowded together in inappropriate housing systems, on wire mesh floor, without sufficient (or any!) bedding.

Cage Systems for Rabbits – Natural behavior is impossible in a cage and due to the narrowness and the very high number of animals per cage, the rabbits, who normally enjoy running around, digging into the ground and gnawing on branches and scrubs, are doomed to immobility.

Live Animal Transport – Read all about our transport work here.

Breeding angora rabbits with excessive hair – Angora rabbits are intentionally bred to have fluffy wool which compromises their welfare and health. There is no cruelty-free way of keeping Angora rabbits. Read more about it here.

Cruel handling of rabbits – They naturally fear being handled and pinned down which is a common process in the industry. This can even lead to heart attacks due to stress.

Wire mesh flooring – The wire mesh flooring often causes serious injuries to the paws or legs. If the wounds become infected, serious complications can occur.