Producing a safe, nutritious food product begins with ensuring the health and well-being of the animals we raise and process. Tyson Foods has a long-standing commitment to the well-being and proper handling of the animals used in its food products. It is an expectation expressed in our Core Values, which call for us to “serve as stewards of the animals, land, and environment entrusted to us.” This is not only the right thing to do; it is also an important moral and ethical obligation we owe to our suppliers, customers, ourselves, and most importantly, to the animals we depend on for our products and our livelihood.

Our commitment to animal well-being helps us maintain the critical balance between ensuring the needs of our animals are met and providing our customers and consumers with the quality food products they deserve. CLICK HERE to review our Animal Well-Being Mission Statement.


As part of our commitment to animal well-being, we established the Office of Animal Well-Being in 2000. Kellye Pfalzgraf, DVM, directs this office and our animal well-being programs. Dr. Pfalzgraf has 34 years' experience in food animal veterinary practice. He served as a Veterinary Medical Officer for U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Services (FSIS) in a pork slaughter facility, and received training from various specialists in the field of animal well-being, including the internationally recognized expert Dr. Temple Grandin.

In addition to his responsibilities for Tyson Foods, Dr. Pfalzgraf serves on numerous animal well-being committees across the industry. As such, he is recognized as an industry expert in the area of animal well-being and regularly provides guidance and consultation to many retail, food service, and trade associations.

Specifically, the responsibilities of this office include:

• Advising our executive and management teams on animal well-being issues, and working directly with customers and trade groups on these issues;
• Advising producer organizations in the development of animal well-being guidelines, self-assessments, audit criteria, and the determination of acceptable limits;
• Performing random animal-handling audits at Tyson Foods' slaughter facilities, and trending monthly internal audit results;
• Developing animal well-being training videos and written materials, and ensuring facilities conduct training sessions with Team Members that handle live animals; and
• Presenting programs and describing company and industry animal well-being practices to professional, producer, customer, and consumer groups.

We have developed and implemented animal well-being programs and practices for all segments of our business: chicken, beef, and pork. The programs consist of training for Team Members that handle and work with live animals; on-going process monitoring; and internal and third party audits and reviews. While these programs and practices differ based on the animal, we believe they demonstrate our proactive commitment to the proper rearing, handling, and slaughter of chickens, and the handling and slaughter of cattle and swine. Below are examples of specific programs and practices we have implemented.

Chicken Well-Being
All Team Members working with live chickens are required to attend annual chicken handling classes. They must successfully pass a written test to assure their understanding of proper handling techniques and sign an agreement to comply with the Tyson Foods chicken well-being requirements. Posters and signs are posted in various areas throughout our facilities to remind Team Members of our commitment to animal well-being. Team Members found in violation of any of these requirements are subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination.

Additionally, best practice system assessments and chicken handling audits are implemented in our hatcheries and chicken slaughter facilities. Facility management teams conduct weekly chicken handling well-being audits in accordance with the National Chicken Council’s Animal Welfare Guidelines and Audit Checklist, and facility-based Food Safety and Quality Assurance technicians conduct monthly chicken handling well-being verification audits in our slaughter facilities. In addition, audits are conducted annually by various customers as well as professional auditing companies trained in animal well-being auditing. All audit results, including both internal and external results, are sent to our Office of Animal Well-Being for monitoring and trend analysis.

Beef and Swine Well-Being
Team Members working with live animals must be Trained Animal Handler (TAH) Certified. This certification consists of a four-stage program requiring completion of a professionally developed training class on animal handling and stunning. Certified Team Members must successfully pass a written test to assure their understanding of proper handling techniques, and sign an agreement to comply with the Tyson Foods beef and swine well-being requirements. Annual recertification is required. As with our chicken well-being program, Team Members found in violation of these requirements are subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination.

We also maintain Risk Assessment, Control, and Evaluation (RACE), a program that is like a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) program for animal well-being. These programs, coupled with oversight reviews from our internal corporate management team, are over and above the regulatory requirements of USDA as mandated in the Humane Slaughter Act of 1978.

We also maintain an extensive animal well-being communication and audit program in our beef and pork processing plants. This includes:

• The posting of signs in animal receiving and handling areas reminding Team Members of our commitment to animal well-being;
• Video surveillance of animal handling and stunning areas;
• Insensibility audits at key areas are conducted by facility management on every shift;
• Each slaughter facility has an internal animal well-being team that reviews audit results and implements enhancements to improve animal handling practices;
• Facility management conducts quarterly yard-condition and driver-transportation audits;
• Weekly internal animal well-being audits at each beef and pork processing plant conducted in accordance with the American Meat Institute's Animal Welfare Guidelines;
• Facility management performs semi-annual, in-depth animal-well-being audits, and the results of these audits are reported to company executives;
• Tyson Foods' Office of Animal Well Being conducts random, in-depth slaughter facility audits for animal handling annually, consulting on any issues identified; and
• Third party audits are conducted routinely by independent professionals trained in animal well-being auditing practices.

In addition, we engage with our animal transportation partners, independent chicken producers, and various industry associations to promote further programs and practices aimed at animal well-being. Because we purchase our beef, and most of our pork, from independent producers on the open market, we have less control of these animals’ well-being prior to processing. We still strive, however, to ensure their well-being is maintained from the farm to our facilities. For example, we only buy healthy animals. Additionally, we provide manuals which recommend good management and well-being practices to the drivers who transport live animals to our plants. We also have management positions certified to train drivers who haul swine in the Trucker Quality Assurance program developed by the National Pork Board.


We are committed to evaluating and managing the animal well-being issues of greatest concern to our stakeholders. Below we provide insight into our management approach regarding some of the most common questions or concerns raised by our animal well-being stakeholders.

Housing of Broiler and Breeder Chickens – We do not raise our broiler chickens in cages or our breeder chickens that lay the eggs that hatch and become the broilers for our food products. Both our broiler and breeder chickens are raised in open barns or, as we commonly refer to them, houses. These houses offer adequate ventilation and lighting, as most are equipped with curtains that are raised during good weather, allowing for natural light and fresh air. They are also equipped with automated systems that deliver feed and water to the chickens on an as needed basis. The floor of a house is covered with plant-based materials, such as rice hulls. The houses provide a comfortable environment in which the chickens can move freely with protection from inclement weather, extreme temperatures, disease, and predators. We maintain strict policies regarding the location, size, and stocking density of the houses used to raise our chickens, for both company-owned houses and independent producer houses. These measures are critical to ensuring the health and biosecurity of our chickens and the quality of our food products.

Gestation Stalls for Sows - We make animal well-being decisions based on best available scientific research and the recommendations of animal well-being experts in the industry. Current information indicates there are several types of production systems that are favorable for pigs, including open pens, gestation stalls, and open pasture. According to published studies, the most important consideration is the individual care given to each animal and the caretaker’s management and husbandry skills, regardless of the system used. Furthermore, the American Veterinary Medical Association and the American Association of Swine Veterinarians have reviewed the existing scientific literature on gestational sow housing and have published position statements that concluded individual and group housing systems both have advantages and disadvantages. For this reason, we will continue to purchase pigs from producers using both individual and group housing systems, while we continue to monitor the scientific literature regarding gestation housing.

Physical Alteration of Chickens – As with many animals that live or travel in flocks and herds, broiler chickens naturally establish a “pecking order.” This natural behavior can lead to instances of undesirable behaviors such as injurious pecking and clawing, and sometimes cannibalism. We do not practice beak trimming or toe trimming in broilers, nor do our independent poultry producers. Instead, we carefully monitor the conditions and stocking densities of our company-owned and independent producer broiler houses to minimize fighting, feather pecking, and other negative behaviors.

Stunning Methods – We continue to evaluate optimal methods for stunning animals. In 2006, we concluded a study evaluating the effectiveness of Controlled Atmosphere Stunning (CAS). During the study, we considered numerous key factors including, but not limited to, animal well-bring, food safety, product quality, workplace safety, and other available scientific research. Based on our study, we believe CAS may be an acceptable alternative to conventional electrical stunning; however, we do not consider it to be more humane.

Safe Transport – The transport of animals to the processing plant is an important animal well-being issue. Research shows that, in addition to numerous well-being benefits, careful and quiet animal handling during loading, transport, and unloading can produce meat quality benefits as well. It is for these reasons, in the spring of 2010, we will implement the American Meat Institute Transportation Audit Guidelines for Cattle and Hogs at all our beef and pork processing facilities. These guidelines contain two sets of audit criteria related to animal well-being during transport. The first set of audit criteria evaluates a processing facility’s policies and preparedness for receiving animals including minimization of wait time; weather, environmental and emergency management plans; acceptable handling tools; non-slip flooring; adequate lighting; and the staff available to receive animals. The second set of audit criteria focuses on the set-up, loading and unloading, timely arrival, and condition of the trailers used to transport the animals to the processing facility. We believe the implementation of these guidelines will better enable us to identify opportunities for continual improvement with regards to the loading, transport, and unloading of our cattle and hogs.


Tyson Foods works hard every day to earn and maintain consumer trust.  We know that the healthiest chickens produce the best products.  We also know that animal health, just like human health, depends on a healthy diet, good preventive health practices and a safe and comfortable environment.  We strive to provide all of these elements to our chickens, all of the time. We do this in cooperation with more than 5,700 family farms with whom we contract to raise our chickens.  And we employ specially trained and licensed veterinarians to guide our breeding, feeding and well-being practices to be sure we are following the latest professional guidance.

Tyson Foods only uses feed ingredients approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and administers them only according to veterinary assessments and under veterinary supervision.  Each flock of birds and grow-out location typically has different animal health needs.  As a result, we may use different animal health products and feed formulations at different locations, according to the birds’ needs.  Just like our finished product recipes, our feed formulations are proprietary and may vary from complex to complex, and even seasonally.  We do not disclose specific feed formulations for specific grow-out locations to the public.  However, we can say that all FDA-approved antibiotics and antimicrobials may sometimes be used by Tyson Foods for the well-being of our chickens.

Tyson Foods also complies with federal regulations prohibiting the use of added hormones or steroids in any chicken product.

Tyson Fresh Meats is committed to producing wholesome, unadulterated meat products for consumers. While we do not raise our own cattle or hogs, we do purchase livestock from multiple independent farmers and we forge partnerships with those producers, dealers, and marketers to achieve the goal of safe, wholesome foods.

It is a violation of Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) to sell livestock for slaughter that may contain drug residues or chemicals that exceed tolerances in meat established by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) Residue Monitoring Program tests meat and animal organs to ensure that livestock producers have followed safe production methods regarding any pharmaceutical use. USDA inspectors visually check each animal at the packing plant for signs that they were managed with safe production methods regarding use of veterinary drugs and hormones. In the rare instance of a violative drug residue finding, the animal’s carcass and all parts are condemned. In such cases, USDA notifies FDA of the violation, and FDA in turn contacts the livestock producer.

Tyson Fresh Meats supports the efforts of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) and the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC), which stress the importance of producers controlling drug residues in their livestock. A unified commitment to animal health helps maintain the critical balance between ensuring the needs of our animals are met and providing our customers and consumers with the quality food products they deserve.


Tyson Foods currently has no plans to purchase cloned livestock, as it will likely be a long time before such animals would even be available for market. Any measures we ultimately take will be guided by government regulations and the desires of our customers and consumers.