The campaign is targeting major retailers across the world, including Walmart, Tesco and Carrefour, calling on them to stop stocking pork that comes from poor-welfare pig farms.
World Animal Protection is urging the public to sign its petition and demand supermarkets to commit to selling pork from pigs that have been raised in a high-welfare environment.
The organisation said that supermarkets failing to commit to these changes could result in losing customers.
“Supermarkets hold the power to create better lives for pigs,” said World Animal Protection CEO Steve McIvor. “We are encouraging customers of leading supermarkets to let them know they expect higher welfare standards for pork products, with the guarantee that pigs are raised right.”
The move was prompted following a series of international research studies from World Animal Protection, which revealed that the vast majority of supermarket shoppers were concerned about the treatment of factory-farmed pigs.
The studies showed that 89% of people were willing to change where they shopped if a supermarket committed to improving the lives of pigs, while seven out of ten people (72%) internationally believed that the way factory-farmed pigs were kept was ‘upsetting’, ‘wrong’ and ‘shocking’.
Other results claimed eight out of ten (80%) consumers in Brazil, Thailand and Australia were concerned about the human health impact from the routine use of antibiotics in farm animals.
World Animal Protection is working with pig producers to develop higher-welfare systems and, last week, welcomed Thailand-based Charoen Pokphand Foods’ decision to remove pregnant pigs from cages, describing the move as a “significant step”.