UPDATED 03/09/2026: English European Animal Welfare Statement:

Our Core Philosophy & Values

We believe that every animal deserves to be treated with compassion and respect. Our dedication to animal welfare is at the heart of everything we do, guiding our animal welfare practices with our global organisation and partners. We believe quality care for pets includes optimal nutrition, veterinary health care, daily exercise and an enriching environment with lots of love. We only use compassionate, noninvasive methods necessary to develop nutritional technology so dogs and cats around the world live long, healthy lives. Our breakthroughs in pet nutrition are unmatched in the pet food industry, and we’ve built our business and reputation on always practicing the highest ethical standards.

Ethical Research & Clinical Studies Policy

Every day we prove that quality scientific technology and compassionate animal care go hand-in-hand to improve pets’ healthy lives. This is why Hill’s only supports and exercises the responsible, caring and humane treatment of dogs and cats. All studies conducted or supported by Hill’s — whether at the Hill’s Pet Nutrition Center or externally in consumers’ homes, veterinary schools or elsewhere — must comply with the following stringent Hill’s policies to ensure exceptional animal care:

• All Hill’s-supported studies are designed to maintain and improve the animal’s health. No study will be performed on dogs or cats that requires euthanasia.
• When studying how a nutrient is absorbed, distributed, stored, used and released by a dog’s or cat’s body, we only use research methods that are the veterinary equivalent of human nutritional or medical studies. Hill’s does not support or conduct studies that cause pain or hurt the dogs or cats. This is based on the belief that what is painful to humans is also painful to dogs and cats.
  
• We only conduct studies if we have compelling evidence that we can improve the health and welfare of companion animals. These studies often result in breakthrough nutritional findings, improving the lives of millions of dogs and cats.
  
• We continually strive to find ways to reduce dependence on animal research. A substantial number of dogs and cats participating in our feeding studies are involved in in-home tests. Our veterinarians and nutritionists are skilled at developing methods that simulate animal systems. For example, we have developed and published a mathematical formula, based on the nutrient profile of the food that accurately predicts the pH of feline or canine urine without animal testing.
• To assure pet owners that our clinical nutrition is safe and effective, we support studies using pets with naturally occurring diseases or conditions. We do not participate in studies in which surgical or non-surgical methods are used to create or simulate disease conditions.
• The Hill’s Pet Nutrition Center and any external facility Hill’s supports must meet or exceed all industry regulatory standards for animal care. For all studies conducted at external facilities, we appoint and fund pet advocates, responsible for ensuring each pet’s compassionate care, which has the key components of providing exercise and a socially enriched environment.
• We publish the results of our studies to advance the knowledge of nutritional health care and to help prevent the unnecessary repetition of studies involving dogs and cats.
• Hill’s only uses data from animal studies that are in the public domain, either previously published or that were conducted under this Global Animal Welfare Policy.

Stakeholder Collaboration & Industry Standards

We collaborate with our suppliers and other key stakeholders, including NGOs, governmental bodies, and researchers on specific animal-welfare and sourcing initiatives. Details regarding our defined scope, metrics, and latest verified progress are published in the Colgate-Palmolive Sustainability Report.

Hill's takes several measures to support further animal welfare efforts, including industry collaboration: It is important for the entire pet food industry to bring about sustainable and lasting improvements for animal welfare. As a member of FEDIAF, we are part and actively support the various initiatives of the Association and its working groups, as available in FEDIAF’s recent Annual Report 2026 (available at: https://europeanpetfood.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/FEDIAF_Annual-Report_2026_WEBv1.1.pdf)

A key role of Hill’s, in support of pets welfare, is the active shaping, with fellow industry partners, of FEDIAF’s nutritional recommendations; most recently released in 2026 (FEDIAF Nutritional Guidelines for Complete and Complementary Pet Food for Cats and Dogs.)

Sustainable & Humane Ingredient Sourcing

Pledge for Poultry Products:

• Since 2024, Hill’s Pet Nutrition sources 100% cage-free eggs and egg-based products (excluding combination and limited access systems as well) for their wet and dry products made in Europe. Hill’s Pet Nutrition supports an EU-wide cage ban for laying hens, thus reaffirming its commitment to phasing out those systems in Europe.
• Hill's Pet Nutrition commits to sourcing 100% of the chicken from farms and slaughterhouses that comply with the criteria of the European Chicken Commitment for its European business by 2030. This is an initiative supported by over thirty NGOs aimed at improving the conditions in which broiler chickens are reared and slaughtered. With this, we are the first pet food manufacturer to commit to this initiative throughout Europe. We have developed a roadmap with the support of Compassion In World Farming (CIWF) with key actions and milestones towards compliance with the ECC until the end of 2030. We'll be sharing our progress on this website each year.

Sustainably-Sourced Fish Products: The fish we source for our products comes exclusively from sustainably caught or farmed suppliers certified through the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, Marine Trust and Friends of the Sea. Details regarding our initiatives can be found under Colgate-Palmolive Sustainability Report.