Brazilian Central Bank sees animal welfare violations as a risk

Stop Financing Factory Farming
15th September '21
Pigs in a newly built industrial farm. Hundreds of millions of pigs are raised for food each year in factory farms. Many farms such as this keep pigs confined separately in narrow crates until they reach slaughter age, typically anywhere from four months to one year old.
Hundreds of millions of pigs are raised for food each year in factory farms. Many farms such as this keep pigs confined separately in narrow crates until they reach slaughter age, typically anywhere from four months to one year old. Access to these kinds of spaces is restricted, rare, and often fleeting. Our visit to this pig farm was facilitated through a partnership with the local animal advocacy group EAST (Environment & Animal Society of Taiwan). Thanks to our partnership with NGOs like EAST, we are not only able to capture these kinds of images, but we’re also able to supply local advocacy groups with the visuals they need to launch successful, targeted campaigns against the animal industries in their own backyards.

In September, The Brazilian Central Bank announced a new resolution that includes practices associated with “trafficking, cruelty, abuse, or mistreatment of animals” into the list of issues that can pose environmental risks for investments, credits, and other financial services made by financial institutions in the country.

The regulation requires financial institutions to have a governance structure that addresses the exposure to risks in a way that is proportional to the size of the exposure. This way, banks with a large agriculture portfolio such as Banco do Brasil, may have to report on this matter. If the risk is considerable, the financial institution should identify, measure, monitor, evaluate, report, control, and mitigate these risks under its risk governance structure.

“This is a very important step as it will require financial institutions to start considering if they are exposed to animal welfare related risks, if so to what extent, and if they can do anything to reduce those risks,” says Merel van der Mark, Sinergia Animal’s finance and animal welfare manager. She explains these analyses may lead more financial institutions to adopt policies that will prevent them from financing the worst practices of animal welfare.

Check out the policy of Banco do Brasil and other Brazilian banks, and send them a message to encourage them to adopt strong animal welfare policies.

This was originally published by Sinergia Animal.

Stop Financing Factory Farming
15th September '21
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