RSPCA Assured

**Trilby Bee** Wed Mar 31, 2021 5:03 pm

28 March at 08:15 ·
RSPCA ASSURED | Four things you won't know about RSPCA Assured when it comes to the welfare of farmed salmon.
1. RSPCA Assured does not guarantee the fish you eat is of a higher welfare standard. Salmon farmers only have "to try" or "make best efforts" at higher welfare.
2. RSPCA Assured is paid approx. £1m per year by salmon farmers for the right to use their label.
3. RSPCA Assured has no more legal powers of inspection or enforcement than you do. The statutory welfare agency for farmed salmon in Scotland is the Animal & Plant Health Agency.
4. RSPCA Assured guidelines and standards are set by a team of 21 people, 18 of whom are employed or funded by the salmon farming industry. There are no independent animal welfare experts involved.
Put very simply and plainly, this is a marketing scheme set up and run by salmon farmers for salmon farmers RSPCA Assured cannot and has not improved welfare on salmon farms. In the last twenty years mortality rates on salmon farms have remained at around 25%, five times higher than battery farmed chickens.
There is no public access to, and RSPCA Assured refuse to release details of, the number of inspections they carry out each year, farms inspected or findings.