Why does the Animal Welfare Approved program insist that animals should be raised on a family farm?
It is our conviction that the humane care of farm animals can best be provided on a family farm, where animals tend to be kept in numbers that are conducive to individual attention. We define a family farm as one on which a family or individual owns the animals, is responsible for management decisions and participates in the day to day labor to manage the farm operation and its animals, and derives a share of the family’s or individual’s livelihood from that farm. The family farm requirement does not prohibit networking among family farmers, provided that all of them comply with the Animal Welfare Approved standards. We believe it is important to cultivate a high welfare ethic in the countryside to help ensure that husbandry knowledge, experience and skills can be passed on from one farmer to another and one generation to the next, through conversation, observation and firsthand experience. It is important that the farmer knows the animals well through daily contact and relates to each
