Animal Welfare
Importance of Animal Welfare to Elanco and our Stakeholders
At Elanco, we are committed to the highest standards of animal welfare throughout the entire lifecycle of our products. We support and align with the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) purpose to achieve “a world where the welfare of animals is respected, promoted and advanced in ways that complement the pursuit of animal health, human well-being, socio-economic development and environmental sustainability.” While the development and regulatory approval of innovative health solutions necessitate research involving animals, we uphold our ethical and scientific obligations by applying rigorous welfare principles—from initial discovery to the responsible use of our products in homes and on farms. We are dedicated to safeguarding the welfare of pets, farm animals, and research animals worldwide, all while harnessing a holistic approach of animal care that extends beyond the role of our animal health products and services. For a deeper understanding of Elanco’s commitment to animal welfare, our global animal welfare policy can be found in Elanco's Animal Welfare Policy.
Advancing the Welfare of Pets
At Elanco, we believe that the well-being of pets is vital to a healthier world, inspiring our research and development teams to create innovative, safe, and easy-to-administer medicines. We advocate for the responsible use of our products to enrich the lives of pets and their owners. Globally, our committed teams collaborate with veterinarians, educators, and other animal health professionals to promote responsible pet ownership for all ages.
We are dedicated to advancing veterinary professional and technical education by offering accessible and complimentary learning opportunities. Through strategic partnerships with thought leaders and veterinary experts, we provide a diverse range of online and offline education via seminars, lectures, symposiums, and conferences. Notably, our organization of the CVBD World Forum facilitates a global scientific exchange on vector-borne disease, bringing together experts from diverse disciplines to advance understanding and management of vector borne diseases. Furthermore, we empower pet owners by providing free educational materials on pet health through various channels such as websites, social media, radio, and TV, ensuring they have the knowledge to care for their companions effectively.
Through our Paws4Purpose™ initiative, Elanco strategically collaborates with over 1,600 U.S. non-profit organizations focused on pet adoption, delivering pivotal health tools, resources, and expertise that drive substantial improvements in animal welfare. By equipping shelters with tools for creating effective vaccination strategies, infectious disease control, and parasite prevention, we enhance the standard of care, fostering healthier environments for animals. Our targeted discounts on veterinary products significantly expand access to essential medical care for rescue animals awaiting adoption, fostering, or re-homing. Additionally, our partnership with Fear Free® empowers staff and volunteers with critical training, ensuring animals' physical and emotional needs are met, ultimately enriching their overall well-being.
Empowering Farmworkers and Fostering the Welfare of Livestock
Animal welfare and best on-farm management practices are interconnected. Our on-farm services provide product support, but also animal welfare evaluations and consultations to enable customers to refine protocols, improve animal housing infrastructure, enhance commitments to animal welfare, and positively evolve the way to care for animals. Our experts work closely with animal welfare experts, such as veterinarians and nutritionists, to enhance the quality of life for livestock on farms and implement scientifically based animal care practices.
Data benchmarking and analytics are key to measuring and determining improvements in animal welfare. Our field teams work with customers to embed surveillance and benchmarking services in their operations. These include our feed cattle mobility assessment program, our swine transport loss program and our Health Tracking System (HTSi) program in poultry, which use data tracking to capture and monitor specific health and welfare indicators in herds or flocks. The information gathered from these programs has empowered producers and packers to make timely, data-based decisions that improve the health, performance and welfare status of the animals in their care.
Elanco is dedicated to those who are dedicated to their animals: the farm animal caretakers. To support this workforce, Elanco offers a range of bilingual educational services that focus on topics spanning from animal behavior to enhancing a positive workplace culture. When workers are equipped with the right tools and knowledge, they can provide better care and improved human-animal interactions, leading to better outcomes for both animals and humans.
Safeguarding the Welfare of our Research Animals
Respect for animals is an individual responsibility of everyone at Elanco. Our Animal Welfare Policy for Animals in Research applies to all employees who undertake any activity involving animals on behalf of Elanco. It is guided by the “Five Domains,” a scientifically based framework that is highly regarded by welfare experts as a comprehensive means of evaluating the welfare of animals:
- Nutrition — Access to sufficient, balanced, varied and clean food and water
- Environment — Provide comfort through temperature, substrate, space, air, odor, noise and predictability
- Health — Enable good health through the absence of disease, injury, and impairment with an appropriate fitness level
- Behavior — Provide varied, novel, and engaging environmental challenges through sensory inputs, exploration, foraging, bonding, playing, retreating and others
- Mental state — The mental well-being of the animal should benefit from predominantly positive states, such as pleasure, comfort or vitality while reducing negative states such as fear, frustration, hunger, pain or boredom
Our scientists remain committed to embracing the globally recognized ‘3Rs’ of animal research and apply these principles to maximize animal welfare in all animal studies.
- Replacement: We permit animal studies only when necessary. We look to replace animal studies with other approaches, where possible and practical.
- Reduction: We use the fewest number of animals possible in studies.
- Refinement: We eliminate or reduce pain and distress where possible.
Elanco has a dedicated 3Rs committee with members passionate about animal welfare that pursue innovative housing and enrichment options to expand our program. Elanco’s quarterly Golden Heart Award recognizes employees who show compassion and respect for the privilege to conduct animal research by consistently upholding the 3Rs philosophy. Our past awards recognized innovative solutions that reduced animal stress, increased enrichment to support expression of species-specific behaviors, and reduced the number of animals needed to complete study two objectives simultaneously instead of one.
All animal studies receive an ethical review to ensure scientific justification for the study design and that alternative and best practices are applied. The ethical review processes in each country aligns with the specific regulatory requirements of the local authority. For studies where there are no regulatory requirements for an ethical review, the review and approval is performed by an internal Elanco ethics committee.
Our internal research sites are accredited by the AAALAC, and our contract research organizations utilized for study placement are assessed by our Global Animal Welfare and Ethics department to ensure they also meet AAALAC standards. We only work with research partners that meet our high standards of animal welfare.
Our internal research facilities have dedicated animal care technicians that passionately care for our research animals, including socialization, training, and provision of enriched environments. Each site has dedicated veterinarians that provide 24/7 clinical care and oversight and ensure compliance with all applicable welfare legislation. A reporting procedure is available for any general inquiry, concern, comment or question relating to any animal welfare related topic. Finally, Elanco helps find forever homes for retired research animals upon completion of their service.
Elanco management has committed to transparency initiatives as a signatory to Australia’s ANZCCART and the United States’ USARO agreements intended to improve public understanding of the need for the use of animals in research. More information on ANZCCART and USARO agreements can be found at:
Governance and Risk Management
Our animal welfare program is governed by Elanco’s Global Animal Welfare and Ethics Team of experts led by our Vice President of Clinical Development (reporting to the Executive Vice President of Innovation, Regulatory and Business Development) and including our Ethics committee, local animal welfare officers at our animal centers and regional animal welfare officers to cover our contract research network. The program receives additional oversight from senior and executive leadership, who provide regular updates to our Elanco Executive Committee and the Innovation, Science and Technology Committee of the Board of Directors.
Updated July 2026
