RSPCA Assured is to ramp up farm visits from one per year to as many as four, in the wake of a series of damaging exposés alleging animal cruelty on accredited farms in recent months, The Grocer can reveal.
The farm assurance arm of the RSPCA recently completed an urgent review into its governance, with more than 200 farms subjected to unannounced visits following numerous investigations alleging non-compliance on accredited farms.
But despite experiencing months of bad publicity over the allegations, the review – undertaken by third-party audit body Crowe over the summer months – gave the scheme a largely clean bill of health – pointing out it was “operating effectively to provide assurance that animal welfare standards are being met across members”.
It outlined that members were generally abiding by the relevant welfare standards with a limited number of outliers. The Crowe review also found there were just two outlier sites in terms of non-compliances identified, one laying hens site and one salmon site.
Salmon sites had on average the highest number of non-compliances driven by the lack of welfare data and inability to verify paperwork, the review discovered.
RSPCA CEO Chris Sherwood told The Grocer the review’s “definitive” findings reflected the fact the scheme was operating effectively.
“They are saying from that review this scheme is adding benefit for farmed animals,” he said.
Some 50% of all farms visited did not have any identifiable areas of non-compliances, while 93% had fewer than five non-compliances out of an average of over 500 standards depending on the species, the review said.
This was not significantly different from results at regular visits and the process showed standards were being “carried out effectively, with clear and robust processes and controls”.
“There were no significant indications, from the non-compliances identified, that there was wider animal welfare concerns identified from the programme of unannounced reviews than were being identified as part of the current processes,” added the Crowe report.
It said the majority of non-compliances were “for minor or administrative issues”.
’A very different picture’ to that painted by activists
Sherwood added that “all our evidence points to a very different picture” than that painted by activist groups.
Last week, Matthew Glover, founder of Veganuary, launched a campaign against the RSPCA Assured scheme accusing the accreditation of “welfare washing”. The RSPCA has called for Transport for London to take the adverts down.
TfL has told The Grocer the RSPCA’s concerns are being considered. The campaign launch followed footage released by Glover showing poor treatment of pigs on an RSPCA Assured farm.
However, Sherwood downplayed their concerns and insisted “no scheme can be 100% fool-proof”.
He told The Grocer he watches all the footage and it “reminds me about the why the RSPCA’s work is so important because so much of society doesn’t want to think about what happens on farms, and we’re there helping to educate and improve it”.
Read more: Veganuary founder accuses under-fire RSPCA Assured of ‘welfare-washing’ after new exposé
“It instils in me that passion and desire for us to make a bigger impact for farmed animals,” he added.
Sherwood said that while campaign groups were ”good at getting headlines” the RSPCA could point to “tangible changes in legislation and practice as a result of our work”.
The RSPCA was in court this week contributing evidence in a judicial review at the Court of Appeal arguing that fast-growing breeds of chicken are unlawful.
Sherwood told The Grocer he was keen to work together with its dissenters as “we all want to have a world where animals are treated with respect and kindness”.
“I’d urge those groups who are spending important resources to have a go at the RSPCA to reflect and think that actually, there are other groups and organisations out there where those resources can be better targeted,” he added.
Glover recently posted on LinkedIn he had tried to get a meeting in with Sherwood but had yet to secure any time in his diary.
“No one else is doing this work,” said Sherwood. “We are the only organisation setting and regularly monitoring animal welfare standards on farms and continuously driving up those standards, because we review the standards every two years.”
“If the RSPCA wasn’t there, it would be a race to the bottom in terms of standards,” he added.
All recommendations will be put in place
Crowe provided twenty recommendations to the charity outlining ways to improve the scheme including a need for a period of stability across RSPCA Assured, engagement from board members as part of induction processes and define more clearly risk tolerance and appetite positions regarding non compliances.
It recommended more investigations take place each year, which Sherwood confirmed would happen, rising from one to three or four.
At the moment there is no grading system for the failing of compliances, which Crowe has recommended be put in place to distinguish potential impact on animal welfare form the standard not being met.
Crowe also recommended putting in place incident response approaches to prevent siloed decision making. This was coupled with a call for rapid response to concerns raised, establishing an approach for immediate escalation and sanctions following unannounced visits and the development of an approach to identify potential concerns regarding farmer and stockkeeper welfare.
Sherwood said the RSPCA would be putting in place all recommendations.
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