SUPPORTING STATEMENT: This proposal simply seeks transparency about Target’s progress implementing one of its sourcing commitments.



Here’s the background:



In 2016, Target released a “Food Animal Welfare Policy” saying “every animal deserves” certain freedoms for their entire lives—including freedom from pain, injury, fear and distress. And later, Target issued a specific “Pain Management” section addressing the fact that animals in the food supply often endure having their tails, genitals, horns, teeth and other body parts mutilated without pain relief.



“We ask all suppliers of meat, deli and dairy products to find and implement alternative solutions to painful procedures (for example, tail docking, de-horning and castration) where possible,” Target says. “We [also] ask that pain management be used during the transition period of eliminating painful procedures.”



In other words: animals deserve to be free from pain, suppliers should eliminate painful procedures, and, in the meantime, they should provide pain management for animals.



Those are certainly laudable goals, but since Target has never reported any compliance, shareholders have no way of knowing what progress (if any) has been made.



In addition to the substantial ethical implications, animal welfare has long been recognized to be a material issue.



For example, Citigroup has called “concerns over animal cruelty” a “headline risk” imperiling food companies. The World Bank’s International Finance Corporation has reported that “In the case of animal welfare, failure to keep pace...could put companies and their investors at a competitive disadvantage.” And Walmart found 77% of shoppers would increase their trust in a retailer practicing humane treatment.



Moreover, animal welfare transparency is specifically important.



The 2023 “Transparency Trends” report from FMI (an industry trade group with a Target SVP on the Board) found that it’s “extremely important” to the vast majority of shoppers “that brands... are transparent,” with 74% saying that specifically means providing “values-based information such as animal welfare.”