Animal Welfare

Animal Welfare isn't just a distinctive trait of Naturals. It is a fundamental part of the Rovagnati's Responsible Quality Program and its "Good" principle, which shows how important every present and future aspect of this issue is to Rovagnati.

Rovagnati has based its Animal Welfare project on the so-called "5 Freedoms", set out in the "Brambell report" in 1979 by the Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) in England.

Find out more about the 5 Freedoms:

The Five Freedoms outline five aspects that must be respected to ensure animal welfare. They are ideal conditions that can be applied as a basis for assessing welfare in different farming environments (both intensive and extensive). Every animal raised by man must be protected from unnecessary suffering.

Rovagnati has gone a step further than the "5 Freedoms": it has developed a special program which establishes specific criteria to be followed, in order to guarantee that pigs are raised within a supply chain of farms that respect good farming practice and animal welfare.

The Naturals Animal Welfare criteria, which certify that the pigs come from audited farms in which animal welfare is a priority, are as follows:

1. NO use of antibiotics from birth
Animals cannot be administered any antibiotics from birth to slaughter. If antibiotic therapy is required to protect the animals, it is administered but the pigs are then immediately removed from the supply chain. 

2. NO use of hormones
From birth to slaughter, animals cannot be given any type of growth hormone or even natural or synthetic hormones or any other substances that enhance growth, in strict compliance with the EU laws.

3. NO castration without anesthesia and analgesia
It is prohibited to perform castration without anesthesia and analgesia, as well as chemical castration or castration based on the use of chemicals, according to EU legislation.

4. NO extraction of teeth
It is forbidden to extract teeth from any pigs in the supply chain, according to EU legislation

5. NO ear notching
It is forbidden to cut the ears of the pigs in the supply chain, according to EU legislation

6. Environment
The characteristics that breeding environments must have in order to ensure positive living conditions are specified:
- All pigs must always have sufficient quantities of straw and feed available
- It is forbidden to use slatted flooring
- Use of environmental enrichment, according to EU legislation

7. Free range for sows before delivery
Sows are guaranteed free range up to 7 days before delivery, without using gestation crates, according to EU legislation.