Animal Welfare Policy

Animal Welfare Policy

 

ANIMAL WELFARE POLICY STATEMENT

1. INTRODUCTION

  • Superhouse Ltd. (Superhouse Group) is a listed public limited company with its head office at Kanpur, U.P., India. The Company was established in the year 1980 by the Registrar of Companies, Kanpur, U.P. The company also has two subsidiaries in UK, one each in Germany, France, Spain, UAE and USA.
  • This statement is being produced for all products sold by Superhouse Group and its subsidiaries globally including all products sold under their own brands.
  • Since SUPERHOUSE is a listed company, it is following all the rules and regulations and policies laid down by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) with regard to Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Governance etc.
  • SUPERHOUSE GROUP is manufacturing finished leather and leather goods like footwear, accessories, garments, equestrian products in its state of the art industrial units.

2. OUR APPROACH

  • At the outset, it may be told that Animal Welfare has always been on priority with Government of India. The Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI), a statutory advisory body on Animal Welfare laws was established way back in 1962 under section 4 of the Prevention of Cruelty Act, 1960. There are number of Animal Welfare Organization in various cities of India to implement the policies of AWBI.
  • As a responsible corporate house, we fully endorse and support the internationally recognized Five Freedoms which the animals should be afforded with in our supply chain. These are as under:-
    i. Freedom from hunger, thirst and malnutrition.
    ii. Freedom from discomfort.
    iii. Freedom from pain, injury and disease.
    iv. Freedom from fear and distress.
    v. Freedom to engage in normal patterns of animal behaviour
  • As mentioned earlier, we source our raw leather of buffalo which is the by-product of meat industry. Since the meat industry in India mainly caters to export market, it has to follow globally accepted ante mortem and post mortem norms concerning animal welfare while transporting and culling them. The slaughtering is carried out in modern culling lines with minimum distress to animals.
  • The company does not purchase raw leather or skin from aborted animals.
  • The company is involved in the manufacturing of various leather products and despite our own tannery being LWG certified, we also source leathers from third party suppliers. It is individual factory’s and their customer’s priority to sources their leathers from LWG certified suppliers.
  • The company require all its raw leather suppliers i.e. abattoirs to announce their Animal Welfare policy Statement. These declarations are then kept in record and reviewed regularly.
  • The company does not use fur, feathers & down, angora, rabbit hair, mohair or cashmere in any of its products or production.
  • The company does not use or sell through any of its establishments or brands materials derived from vulnerable or endangered species appearing on IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) or CITES (Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species.

3. IMPLEMENTATION

  • As a part of good practice, SUPERHOUSE GROUP keeps a record of all the suppliers of raw leather and finished leather. The company communicates with these suppliers directly to ensure that they adhere and agree to this policy. For this we carry out desk based certification review and where necessary visit them individually to pursue and convince them about the relevance of this policy. We ask them to communicate this policy throughout their own supply chain.
  • The company endeavours to confirm this in writing from suppliers their willingness to comply this policy.
  • The company requires its suppliers to demonstrate the traceability and legality of the raw and finished leather.
  • The company requires its suppliers to provide documentary evidence that best animal welfare practices are followed.
  • The company ensures that its representative is given unhindered access to sites used for producing hides and skins.
  • In order to ensure the policy is effectively implemented, the COMPANY will communicate its stated Animal Welfare Policy to all relevant employees of organization.
  • The company assigns responsibility to its supply chain managers and purchaser of raw material to ensure that the suppliers are aware the policy and they are also implementing it in their manufacturing units along with their own supply chains.
  • The company communicates this policy to all its suppliers and seek formal acceptance and commitment for implementing this policy.
  • The company requires its supplier to report their level of compliance to the policy.
  • The company does independently audit the abattoirs used for as our supply chins to ensure that highest level of Animal Welfare are employed.
  • The company does reviews its animal welfare policy on annual basis and update whenever necessary and appropriate.
  • The company works with suppliers to improve animal welfare standards where its support is needed.
  • The company will cease to trade with suppliers who disregard the Animal Welfare Policy