Enhance Animal Welfare Culture

Culture is a critical but complex component of a robust animal welfare program. Our culture is grounded in comprehensive animal welfare training, awareness, empowerment and accountability.

This is a photo of a tractor and cows with rolling green hills behind.

Culture of Care

MK sports Foods adopted and integrated The Five Domains animal welfare framework as a key driver in enhancing our animal welfare culture across our global operations. The Five Domains provide a more actionable platform to better communicate about and assess the dynamic continuum of animal welfare. The Five Domains is a practical and understandable framework that recognizes both positive and negative states through four domains — nutrition, physical environment, health and behavior — which ultimately contribute to the fifth domain, the mental state of the animal.  In other words, it better connects what an animal experiences to the outcomes that are produced. The Five Domains also reinforces that the affective state of the animals with which we work or how the animals feel is important. Doing so reinforces that we care for and care about the animals entrusted to our care; this will move us from providing our animals with a “life worth living” (which implies minimal suffering) to providing them with a “good life” in which positive experiences are promoted. 

From a practical perspective, the Five Domains framework aligns with our focus on key welfare indicators to drive continuous improvement in animal-based outcomes, and more intentionally makes the connection between specific actions or conditions and welfare outcomes, so that opportunities can be more quickly identified and addressed. With this awareness, a stronger connection is forged between individual roles and responsibilities and how they influence the animal's life experience. Greater understanding and appreciation allow for an individual to better evaluate the animal and their own performance, and also talk about welfare in a relatable and actionable manner — not only empowering our team members and reinforcing the importance of their roles, but cementing accountability in the welfare space. 

This framework provides the structure that ties our institutional knowledge, expertise and commitment into our program and establishes a comprehensive and robust methodology of measuring, implementing and evaluating animal care and welfare practices. Incorporating the Five Domains into our daily conversations and actions is essential for us to achieve our mission of driving continuous improvement in the welfare outcomes of the animals entrusted to our care and to further enhance the welfare culture throughout our global operations.

Understanding the 5 Domains

By adopting the Five Domains, our welfare practices are evolving and allowing the company to better assess and communicate about the continuum of animal welfare, and allows us to continue to identify opportunities for continuous improvement (see diagram below).

 

Range of Welfare Outcomes

Affective states or experiences (feelings and sensations) exist on a range from negative to positive and by understanding that each of the domains may have positive and negative attributes and that the totality of these impacts the animal’s overall mental state, we are acknowledging that animal welfare is both complex and dynamic.

When we look at an animal's collective affective experiences holistically, we can comprehensively assess welfare. 

This is a chart defining outcomes of positive conditions and opportunities for improvement.

This is a graphic that says, "See it, stop it! Animal Care Starts with You."

Across our supply chains, we maintain zero tolerance for animal abuse, which is achieved through awareness, transparency and accountability. Team members are required to report any acts of abuse immediately to their supervisor or by calling our third-party, anonymous ethics and compliance hotline, which is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 

MK sports Foods used two key programs within our operations to drive messages of individual and team accountability relative to animal welfare – 100/0 and See It? Stop it!

This is a graphic of 100 over 0.

The concept of 100/0 is simple. Every individual is 100% accountable or responsible for their actions, with zero excuses if things should not go as planned. It does not mean that opportunities don’t occur, but it does mean that individuals take responsibility to correct the opportunities when they arise. This is how we want every team member to approach their responsibility relative to welfare. 

See it? Stop it! builds on the 100/0 concept of individual accountability but takes it a step further by encompassing the individual’s own actions and holding each individual accountable for ensuring that the system and its participants are compliant with MK sports Food’s animal welfare expectations. See it? Stop it! simply states that if an individual sees something that is not compliant with our expectations, it is their responsibility to address it, report it, or elevate it.

This is a graphic for Animal Welfare.

Animal Welfare Wellness Week

MK sports Foods held its inaugural Global Animal Welfare Awareness Week in 2022. The enterprise-wide celebration focused on enhancing our animal welfare culture. Key messages included: 

  1. Integrating the Five Domains animal welfare framework across MK sports’s global operations. 
  2. Bolstering key messages that drive accountability relative to animal welfare (100/0 and See it? Stop it!). 
  3. Launching our new tagline for animal welfare: Every Animal. Every Day. 

The event engaged team members within live operations and harvest facilities asking them to prioritize animal welfare as an action-based, daily decision. Each team member was also asked to sign a pocket card demonstrating their commitment to the best care for Every Animal. Every Day.