Share the Love with Farmed Animals this Valentine's Day
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Valentine’s Day is all about celebrating love, but let’s not limit that to romantic love. This 14 February, why not extend that to include care and kindness to farmed animals?
For the last 30 years, RSPCA Assured has worked tirelessly to improve the lives of millions of pigs, chickens, egg-laying hens, turkeys, sheep, trout, salmon and cows. All these animals have unique ways of experiencing happiness.
What do farmed animals love most?
From the dancing cows of Denmark to dustbathing hens, all animals are unique; they all need to display their natural behaviours in different ways. So in the spirit of compassion For Every Kind, let’s take a let’s take a look at some of the farmed animals RSPCA Assured helps live better lives
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Pigs
Pigs are intelligent, playful animals that love nothing more than rooting around and exploring their environment. That’s why the RSPCA’s Cage Free Future campaign is so important as it works to end the use of cruel practices of cages, including farrowing crates. Sadly, in many farming systems, pregnant sows are still kept in crates that limit their ability to move freely and express these instincts.
- What pigs love: Soft bedding to rest on, space to roam, and plenty of chances to explore and root around.
- How your choices help: On RSPCA Assured farms pigs must be supplied with straw and other environmental enrichment to encourage them to exhibit their natural behaviours. When you look for the logo and choose products from RSPCA Assured pigs, you’re supporting farms that provide their animals with enriched living conditions, space to explore, materials to root around in and no cages - ever!
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Dairy cows
Cows are social animals. They form strong bonds with one another and often choose “best friends” within their herd. They thrive in environments where they can graze in open pastures, chew the cud in peace, and enjoy the company of companions. Having access to as much pasture as possible is essential for their happiness and allows them to engage in their natural behaviours. Unfortunately, cows reared on lower welfare farms often don’t get these opportunities, and spend much of their lives confined with no access to the open spaces they love so much.
- What cows love: Grazing freely, lounging in the grass, and socialising with the herd.
- How your choices help: Cows on RSPCA Assured farms benefit so much from environmental enrichment, such as cow brushes, which they use to groom and scratch themselves. By choosing milk from RSPCA Assured cows, you are helping to support farms where cows have access to outdoor grazing, and where enrichment is seen as a priority.
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Laying hens
Hens are curious, social animals that enjoy scratching around for seeds, basking in sunlight, and dustbathing to clean their feathers. So it’s distressing to find out that many farmed hens still spend their entire lives in cramped conditions with very little room to move around and engage in natural behaviours. The RSPCA’s Cage Free Future campaign is working to change this by ending the use of cages in farming.
- What hens love: Room to roam, places to perch, materials for scratching and dust bathing.
- How your choices help: When you look for the logo and choose RSPCA Assured eggs, you’re supporting higher welfare standards and helping hens live better lives free from cages forever.
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Chickens
Chickens are naturally inquisitive and love to peck at interesting objects, find places to perch and explore their grounds. On lower welfare farms, chickens may still be raised in overcrowded barns with only limited opportunities to express these natural behaviours. This can lead to frustration, stress, and even aggression. Many people also don’t know that millions of chickens are bred to grow quickly. This unnaturally fast growth puts a lot of strain on their bones, their muscles and their organs which often causes a lot of pain and suffering.
RSPCA Assured is the difference between slower-growing, higher welfare chickens and chickens who grow so fast they struggle to walk - or cannot walk.
- What chickens love: Space to roam, perches to climb and rest on, and plenty of things to peck and explore.
- How your choices help: On RSPCA Assured farms, chickens are provided with environmental enrichments such as straw bales, perches, and hanging objects to keep them active and engaged. By choosing RSPCA Assured chicken, you're supporting farms that prioritise welfare and provide the chickens with the space and stimulation they need to thrive.
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Salmon & trout
Farmed fish like salmon and trout are often overlooked when it comes to welfare, but like all animals, they have their own preferences and needs. Salmon love swimming against strong currents, while trout enjoy resting in cool, shaded waters. In lower welfare systems, fish may be overcrowded, which can cause stress and prevent them from behaving naturally.
- What fish love: Clean, oxygen-rich water with space to swim freely.
- How your choices help: With RSPCA Assured, salmon must have health and welfare plans developed with the vet. The amount of fish that can be stocked together is also lower giving them more space to swim around. By choosing RSPCA-assured salmon or trout, you can support farms that prioritise clean, spacious environments, minimise stress, and ensure humane handling.
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Your choices make a difference
Every time you shop, you can make a difference to the lives of farmed animals. If you choose to eat meat, fish, eggs or dairy, choosing RSPCA Assured higher welfare produce helps ensure the animals are raised in conditions where they can express their natural behaviours and enjoy the things they love most. Farmed animals are some of the most exploited and vulnerable animals in the world and it is thanks to the work of RSPCA Assured that many millions live better lives.
The RSPCA’s pioneering standards mean that together we have been the first to require CCTV to monitor welfare in slaughterhouses, to ban the use of battery cages for hens 18 years before it became law, to insist on pasture for dairy cattle, to provide more space for salmon, to end the use of fast-growing meat chickens, and to ban the use of farrowing crates for mother pigs.
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There are an average of 700 standards for each species, which must all be met, and each one makes a difference to animal welfare. We are continually reviewing and improving our procedures and standards to ensure they are as effective and impactful as they can be at driving up farmed animal welfare.
Share the love this Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day is a celebration of love in all of its forms. It is the perfect time to reflect on our choices and see the difference we can make every day, not just to the important people around us but to the animals we share the world with. By choosing higher welfare farming, you're contributing to a better life for farmed animals. So when you’re shopping for your special evening, be sure to check out our Where to Buy RSPCA Assured page and look for the RSPCA Assured logo.
About the author
Jodie - Website Manager
Jodie is RSPCA Assured's Website Manager.