Barclays is funding animal cruelty on an unimaginable scale

JBS is the largest meat producer in the world and is responsible for the suffering of billions of animals cruelly confined to their factory farms each year. JBS operates a business model that puts profit above animals, people, and the environment.

Animals: On JBS’ farms, billions of animals are confined in squalid conditions so tight they are unable to move freely. Chickens are crammed into spaces smaller than a sheet of A4 paper and are made to stand in their own faeces, causing painful conditions such as hock burn. Pigs undergo routine mutilations like castration and tail docking – often without any pain relief.

People: Animals on JBS farms are pumped with antibiotics to keep them alive in cruel and filthy conditions. This overuse of antibiotics poses a lethal threat to human health, contributing to antibiotic resistance. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), by 2050 drug-resistant infections could kill 10 million people each year. In addition, JBS farms are known for polluting land and waterways used by local indigenous communities, threatening their health and ways of living.

Environment: To produce cheap animal feed, JBS relies on deforestation in areas such as the Amazon and the Cerrado. Rainforest trees and the homes of many wild animals are destroyed to make way for soy crop monocultures. In addition, JBS farms are known for polluting waterways with animal manure. This includes the degradation of UK waterways.

Headquartered in Brazil, JBS owns producers across the world through many different subsidiaries. This includes producers in the UK such as Moy Park – which owns 30% of the UK poultry market – and Pilgrim’s UK, which produces a third of UK’s fresh chicken. JBS also owns supermarket brands that you might have heard of, for example Fridge Raiders and Richmond.

Led by JBS, factory farming condemns billions of animals to lives of cruelty and suffering every year for a fast profit. This industry is propped up by investors. Barclays is the biggest investor in JBS, providing over US$6 billion in finance, the equivalent of nearly £4.75 billion, between 2015–2022.

The British public does not want its banks to invest in cruel factory farms. World Animal Protection’s polling with over 2,000 UK residents found that 7 in 10 people do not think their bank should be profiting from factory farms abroad, and over 3 in 5 think their banks should have an animal welfare policy.

To stop the expansion of these cruel factory farms and to end their devastating impact on animals, the environment and on people, Barclays must stop funding these meat producing giants.   
 

By pulling out of its investments in JBS, Barclays is not only putting a stop to the billions of pounds currently enabling the growth of the factory farming giant, but it is also sending the message that funding JBS is an unsustainable investment. This could damage JBS’s reputation, especially with environmentally conscious consumers and investors.

It could also make other financial institutions or stakeholders rethink their relationship with JBS, especially if they see it as a response to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) pressures. Without Barclays’ funding, JBS will need to find alternate sources in a funding landscape where investing in JBS is seen as risky.

This means Barclays’ defunding of JBS would significantly restrict JBS’ growth into new markets. Eventually, this would either lead to JBS downsizing its operations or significantly changing its business model to be able to access funding again.

We tried to use our influence as a Barclays customer to advocate for better animal welfare policies.

Our main ask for Barclays was to introduce an animal welfare policy in line with the Farm Animal Responsible Minimum Standard (FARMS) initiative. This initiative goes beyond the minimum legislation for farmed animals. For example, it advocates for more space for animals and for the use of healthier chicken breeds to stop farms from using chickens that are bred to grow so quickly they are unable to support their own weight. The FARMS initiative is produced in collaboration between World Animal Protection, Humane Society International (HSI), and Compassion in World Farming (CIWF).

Despite repeated outreach to Barclays, including meeting with its sustainability team, the bank has made no progress in adopting any of our asks. This is why we made the decision to leave Barclays as a customer.

We believe banks need to be held accountable for their actions and for their investments. As part of our work, we have been campaigning for banks to instate animal welfare policies and invest money without harming animals. With this announcement, we are making it clear that when banks continue to invest in animal cruelty, we have the power to move our money to more responsible institutions.

Other banks we engaged with, like Lloyds, have taken steps forward. Lloyds is engaging with us in conversations and is currently reviewing our FARMS initiative.

The biggest way to hurt JBS is by urging its biggest investor, Barclays, to pull its funding. By defunding JBS, Barclays is not only putting a stop to the billions of pounds currently enabling the growth of the factory farming giant, but it is also sending the message that funding JBS is an unsustainable investment. This could damage JBS’s reputation, especially with environmentally conscious consumers and investors. You can sign our petition calling on Barclays to stop funding animal suffering.

World Animal Protection is also part of the ‘Drop JBS Coalition’, together with Bank Track, Feedback, Greenpeace UK and Mighty Earth. As part of the coalition, we delayed the decision by financial regulators to list JBS publicly on the US Stock Exchange market by nearly two years. We exposed material gaps in the information the company provided to investors and forced JBS to continually disclose the risks in its supply chain, including deforestation in biodiversity hotspots, animal suffering, and zoonotic disease.

Sadly, the US Securities and Exchange Commission went ahead and approved JBS to list on the New York Stock Exchange. By doing this, they have granted incredible license to one of the worst corporate citizens in the world, with a record of corruption, cruelty, tax avoidance, and climate greenwashing.

We will not stop fighting the expansion of factory farming companies like JBS, which are among the greatest threats to animals and the planet today.

You can reach out to your bank’s customer service or corporate social responsibility (CSR) team and directly ask if they provide funding to JBS.

Banks such as HSBC, Santander, Deutsche Bank, BlackRock, and JP Morgan provide funding to JBS, though this may not be an exhaustive list.

Barclays is JBS’ largest financier. Between 2015 and 2022, Barclays invested $6 billion in JBS in loans and underwriting – the equivalent of nearly £4.75 billion.      

It might be useful to look at our Banking on Welfare report which ranks 10 banks based on an assessment of their animal welfare policies. Triodos Bank scored the highest with 86%.

There are also websites online such as Money Saving Expert and Good with Money which will provide information on the UK’s most ethical banks.