Welfare

Welfare of poultry at shows, events, in breeding facilities and in backyards

Australian animal welfare guidelines and standards review

A review of the Australian Animal Welfare Guidelines has been under way since 2013.  The development of the Australian Animal Welfare Standards and Guidelines for Poultry will be of prime importance to the exhibition poultry community.  A poultry stakeholder advisory group has been working on the poultry draft review and it will be released for public comment in July 2017. The consultation period will be 90 days.

From an animal welfare perspective, the document will cover all welfare aspects for poultry. This will include poultry meat processing and poultry species such as ducks, turkeys, geese, pheasants, guinea fowl, partridge, quail ostrich, emu and pigeons.

Each chapter within the standards and guidelines for poultry will contain:

• • Objectives – these are the intended overall outcome(s) for each section of the standards and guidelines

  • Standards– these are the requirements that must be met under animal welfare law

  • Guidelines– these are the recommended practices to achieve desirable animal welfare outcomes; they describe better animal welfare outcomes compared to the standards.

For more information see the Australian Animal Welfare Standards website.