Animal rights group Mercy for Animals recently released its Canada Animal Welfare Scorecard, rating major companies in Canada for their commitments to broilers, laying hens and pigs.
The scorecard is the first in what Mercy for Animals says will become an annual report to rank companies on what it views as companies’ progress in the area of animal welfare. The criteria includes whether companies have agreed to the Better Chicken Commitment, whether they have committed to a cage-free egg policy and if they have reported progress toward achieving goals related to that policy, and whether they have committed to a gestation-crate-free operation and if they have reported progress toward that commitment.
There are seven tiers of evaluation.
Gold Tier
The top tier, referred to as the Gold Tier, includes companies that have all three policies and are publicly reporting percentage of progress toward sourcing cage-free eggs and crate-free pork.
Companies Mercy for Animals identified as meeting the Gold Tier terms include Chipotle, Ikea, UNFI and Whole Foods.
Silver Tier
The second tier, or Silver Tier, includes companies that have two of the three previously mentioned policies, and are publicly reporting percentage of progress toward sourcing cage-free eggs or crate-free pork.
Companies to meet the criteria of this tier include A&W, Loblaws, McCain Foods, Metro, Nestle, Save-On-Foods, Sobeys, Sodexo, Starbucks, Subway, Unilever, Aramark, Campbell’s, Compass Group and Kellogg’s.
Bronze Tier
Companies to make Mercy for Animals third or bronze list have one of the three policies and are publicly reporting percentage of progress toward it.
Those included on that list are Dairy Queen, McDonald’s, Recipe Unlimited (brands include Harvey’s, The Keg and Swiss Chalet), Taco Bell, Conagra Brands, General Mills and Kraft Heinz.
Fourth Tier
Companies in the fourth tier have two or all three policies but are not publicly reporting any progress.
Those included on that list include Boston Pizza, Restaurant Brands International (Tim Hortons, Popeyes and Burger King), Second Cup and Walmart.
Fifth Tier
Companies in the fifth tier have one of the three policies but are not publicly reporting any progress.
The businesses on that list are Flanagan Foodservice, Gordon Food Service, KFC, MTY Group (Country Style, Manchu Wok and Mr. Sub), Pizza Hut, Pizza Pizza, Stewart Foodservice and Wendy’s.
Sixth and seventh tiers
In order to be listed on the sixth tier, companies do not have any policies but are publicly reporting the percentage of progress. Costco is the only business on that list.
The seventh tier, which is the lowest level of ranking from Mercy for Animals, includes businesses that have no welfare policies and are not reporting any progress. Sysco is the only company to make that list.
