Celebrating the end of the first year of PFMA’s Pet Food Vision, with its focus on Animal Welfare, the trade body has produced an Animal Welfare Framework.
This, PFMA said, embodies the organisation’s commitment to supporting the welfare needs of all animals and can be downloaded from www.pfma.org.uk.
Nicole Paley, deputy chief executive of the PFMA, explains: “Our Pet Food Vision spans three years and each year we are focusing on one of the three pillars underpinning our work: animal welfare, nutrition, safety and standards.
“Although these are all areas of ongoing activity, it is extremely valuable to focus the mind and throw the spotlight on one area each year. We learned so much in our first year and the development of the Animal Welfare Framework encapsulates our commitment to the welfare of all animals.”
There are six key points detailed in the framework:
- PFMA is committed to providing high quality, safe nutrition for pets– adhering to strict guidelines. We believe animal welfare starts with great quality nutrition. Our members are responsible for feeding 50 million plus pets and we take this responsibility very seriously;
- PFMA is committed to welfare driven feeding. We consider and respect feeding guidelines, optimising the feeding environment plus work hard to communicate our messages via labelling and communication and educational material on good nutrition;
- PFMA is committed to promoting companion animal welfare and responsible pet ownership working to produce excellent weight management resources, pet food guidelines and other generic educational material;
- PFMA maintains high standards of raw materials by championing some of the highest feed safety and animal welfare standards throughout the world. We work hard to ensure these standards are not undermined by imports with lower standards and we encourage members to have responsible sourcing and traceability policies;
- PFMA endorses the Five Freedoms identified in the Animal Welfare Act and with respect to farm animal welfare, support the FAWC concept of a Life Worth Living; and
- PFMA works closely with stakeholders in the farm animal and companion animal sectors to ensure members are up to date on all issues. PFMA is a proud co- sponsor of the Associate Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare (APGAW), participates in other forums such as the Canine Feline Sector Group. PFMA is also a trustee of National Pet Month and supports the Animal Welfare Education Alliance.
In 2019, Ms Paley said PFMA will continue the Pet Food Vision throwing the spotlight on pet nutrition.
She added: “It will be the 10-year anniversary of the first PFMA Pet Obesity White Paper and there will be an educational push promoting healthy feeding and weight management – a key component of companion animal welfare.”
