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The audits started by McDonalds, Wendys, and Burger King in 1999 for beef and pork resulted in dramatic improvements because the standards had clear cut guidelines where each plant was evaluated with objective numerical scoring. To pass the audit, a plant had a pass on all five of the major criteria and have no acts of abuse. In 2005, the National Chicken Council audit was done on 19 poultry complexes. The way that the audit was scored allowed all of the plants to pass even though 26% (5 plants) had serious abuses which should have resulted in an automatic failure. The plants passed because they did well on many of the less critical parts of the audit. The abuses in the five plants are listed below:
The abuses in these five complexes are items that should have resulted in an automatic failure. The problem was the way that the audit was scored. Serious welfare problems such as live birds in the scaulder received the same number of points off as less critical items such as employee training records and a written animal welfare action plan. The NCC audit form can be used as a basis for a good welfare audit but the scoring system must be made more strict.
A total of 26 U.S. poultry plants were audited in 2005 by a major customer who has standards that are more strict than the NCC guidelines. These plants have been in the customer's audit system for over three years. Overall these 26 plants have better welfare audit results compared to plants audited to less strict standards. See Table 1 through 5. None of the 26 plants had a serious abuse such as uncut red birds, throwing chickens or live birds in the trash.
| Percentage of Plants That Pass | ||
|---|---|---|
| Strict Customer Standard | NCC Audit Form | |
| 99% or more stunned | 96%1 | 42%2 |
| 98% or more stunned NCC Standard |
96%1 | 89%3 |
| Percentage of Plants That Pass | ||
|---|---|---|
| Strict Customer Standard | NCC Audit Form | |
| 3% or less broken wings | 100%1 | 58%2 |
| 5% or less broken wings NCC Standard |
100%1 | 95%3 |
| Percentage of Plants That Pass | |
|---|---|
| Strict Customer Standard | NCC Audit Form |
| 100% | 83% |
| Percentage of Plants That Pass | |
|---|---|
| Strict Customer Standard | NCC Audit Form N = 18 plants |
| 100% | 83% |
| Percentage of Plants That Pass | |
|---|---|
| Strict Customer Standard N = 26 plants |
NCC Audit Form N = 18 plants |
| 92% | 88% |
These tables clearly show that poultry plants are capable of higher standards than the NCC audit scoring system. The NCC audit form also has lower standards for stunner efficacy and broken wings. The strict standard is:
The NCC standard is:
These standards are on a per bird basis. The 5% standard for broken wings is way too lax. Only one plant out of 19 plants audited with the NCC form failed at the 5% level. However, 100% of the 26 plants audited with the stricter 3% standard passed. When plants are required to uphold a higher standard, they are capable of doing it. Unfortunately, there are some people in the producer community who want to make standards so low that even the worst places can pass. Reasonable standards are set so that good producers can pass them, but poor producers are forced to improve. Setting standards too low is not credible. It is in the best interest of both bird welfare and industry credibility to make scoring of the NCC audit stricter.
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