Animal Welfare
THE UPSTREAM PRODUCTION CHAIN MUST GUARANTES THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF ANIMAL WELFARE.
Another issue of ethical governance attracting increasing attention in terms of public opinion (institutions, clients, media, consumers) is animal welfare conditions.
Leather is still the focus of unjustified media attacks from opinion movements conceptually opposed to any type of production of animal origin. For this reason and to counter the spread of misleading or even false information, it is essential to develop projects and activities on the topic, also with the aim of disseminating certain information on the real, current situations.
Firstly, it is important to underline that animal welfare refers to a qualitative evaluation system of the breeding and transport conditions of animals in terms of their well-being, and/or of the killing and slaughter conditions in terms of minimising the degree of suffering inflicted.
It should be recalled that over 99.5% of the raw hides and skins used by the Italian tanning industry are of bovine, sheep and goat origin (with the remaining part consisting of pig, deer and ’exotic’ skins, i.e., reptiles, fish, kangaroos, etc.). These raw hides and skins are waste from meat production, given that the animals are raised and then killed only for human consumption, and, as they are recovered by tanneries, take on the nature of animal by-products (ABP).
In the context of animal welfare, the meat supply chain is therefore the only active, and therefore also responsible, entity in this regard; ethical efforts at improving animal welfare conditions can only address those who directly treat the animals. As user of a by-product and therefore with limited commercial persuasion power, tanneries lack the title and strength to be able to intervene on rules and practices.
However, the Italian tanning industry is highly attentive to the matter, and constantly monitors practices and any problems.
Contrary to what many believe, animal welfare regulations are extensive and widespread. At a global multilateral level, the international organisations of reference are the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations), which operates as a point of research, collection and exchange of information on animal welfare standards and uses, and the OIE (World Organisation for Animal Health), the main international reference body on the topic, which has established specific standards for transport and slaughter.
On a national and international level, numerous countries and supranational bodies have laws, guidelines, protocols and codes of conduct in force and implemented, which aim to virtuously regulate the treatment conditions of farmed animals. This applies for example to the European Union (and Europe in general), which undoubtedly has one of the most organic, structured, attentive and controlled legislative systems in the world (Dir. 93/119, Dir. 95/29, Reg. 1255 /97, Dir. 98/58, Reg. 882/04, Reg. 1/05, Reg. 1099/09…). But it is not the only one, as there are also similar standards in the USA, Australia, New Zealand and many emerging countries.
Regardless of the rules on hygiene and health aspects, aimed primarily at guarantees for the consumer, the most common regulations concern the following aspects:
These rules have various impacts on the dynamics of the leather supply chain. In addition to the essential contribution of a purely ethical nature, in many cases there is also the benefit of a better quality raw material. However, this is almost always associated with an increase in supply costs. When the effect is clear and tangible, it is still an important investment in achieving the quality required by manufacturing demand.
Also in this area, the attention and efforts of UNIC Italian Tanneries began several years ago.
In 2014 we developed, published and disseminated the ’UNIC Manifesto on Animal Welfare,’ with the aim of promoting the OIE principles based on the five fundamental freedoms of animals and cutting-edge national regulations in this field among operators in the leather supply chain:
In this regard, we wanted to share our vision and our commitment with colleagues and international partners as well, promoting, during the periodic Presidency mandates of our entrepreneurs, the adoption and dissemination of documents and declarations on the topic by Cotance (confederation of European tanning associations) and ICT (International Council of Tanners).
Subsequently, in 2019 we decided to intensify the research/analysis activities and, driven by the need to use and promote a technical-scientific (and not emotional or ’demagogic’) approach to the topic, we activated an important multi-year collaboration with the Department of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences of the University of Milan. The specific objective of the project is to map, verify and evaluate the real animal welfare conditions in the main raw material supply markets of Italian tanneries.
The most recent sector data (2023) on these purchases reveal that 78% come from Europe (including Italy), North America and Oceania, where attention to the topic is extremely high and, as we have seen, are among the most developed and secure legislative systems globally. The remaining part relates to emerging and developing countries, where the rural component, the agricultural culture and widespread extensive farming are still particularly present.
From mapping the existing legislation and the information on the procedures used in the different farming systems, linked to the traceability systems already implemented by the sector, it is therefore possible to confirm the commitment of the Italian tanneries, which can thus provide valid guarantees of responsible management of the resources of animal origin.
Also in this regard, ICEC has developed an ad hoc certification project: it is in fact possible to apply a guarantee evaluation model in the field of animal welfare to the data collected and verified through the TS 410 and TS 412 traceability certification standard.