Sinergia Makes False Claims About Helping Millions of Animals
Sinergia Animal is a charity that works to secure animal welfare commitments from companies in the meat and egg industries. Sinergia was founded in 2017, and has been recognized as one of the world's most effective animal charities by Animal Charity Evaluators since 2018. Currently, Sinergia receives millions of dollars in donations annually.
Sinergia claims that their work is extremely cost-effective, and that with $1 they can "Liberat[e]" 354 piglets from "brutal confinement." Unfortunately, Sinergia's claims are based on:
- Misattributed credit - Sinergia takes credit for policies that already existed.
- Non-existent commitments - Sinergia claims they secured animal welfare commitments that do not exist.
- Poor calculations - Sinergia treats poorly calculated metrics as factual.
In this review, we will look at an example of Sinergia's work and the claims Sinergia makes about it. Then, we will look at the overall basis for Sinergia's claims.
Example: JBS (Seara)
JBS is a multinational meat processing company. Sinergia claims credit for securing two pig welfare commitments from JBS, both relating to their Brazilian brand Seara.
We will address each of these alleged commitments below.
Alleged Commitment 1
Sinergia claims that "JBS published in 2023 the commitment to banning ear notching by 2023." As evidence for this claim, Sinergia provided a link to one of JBS's animal welfare pages. However, the link does not state JBS committed to this. We also checked every archived version of the link and could not find this commitment. Further, in 2024, JBS stated that they still use ear notching due to "Difficulty in finding alternatives that ensure process traceability."
At one point, JBS had a tentative plan to stop ear notching by 2027, but it was later abandoned (currently, we are unsure if it has been reinstated). This plan was the closest thing we could find to the commitment Sinergia alleges.
Although this commitment does not exist, Sinergia estimates that this commitment has helped 8,700,000 piglets per year since 2023, and claims 70% of the credit for helping these piglets.
Alleged Commitment 2
Sinergia claims that in 2023, JBS published a commitment to not use gestation crates in all new projects, with a "Transition deadline" of 2023.
As evidence for this claim, Sinergia provided a link to one of the JBS's animal welfare pages. However, the gestation crate policy that the alleged commitment references was already listed on JBS's website in 2020, and has been in effect since that point.
Thus, Sinergia is presenting a pre-existing company policy as a new commitment.
Sinergia claims that this alleged commitment has helped 290,000 sows (mother pigs) per year since 2023. Further, Sinergia claims they deserve 70% of the credit for helping these sows. However, Sinergia deserves no credit for helping these sows, since they are simply taking credit for ending a practice that had already ended.
Other Meat Processors
Sinergia claims they secured pig welfare commitments from six other meat processors in 2023. However, all of these claims exhibit issues similar to the ones above.
For brevity, we've highlighted just one issue with Sinergia's claims for every other meat processor Sinergia allegedly secured a commitment from in 2023.
Practice Was Already Illegal Prior to Alleged Commitments
Sinergia claims credit for getting Alegra, Alibem, Master Agroindustrial, and Pif Paf Alimentos (all Brazilian meat processors) to end their use of teeth clipping on pigs. However, teeth clipping pigs was already illegal in Brazil prior to the alleged commitments.
Pre-Existing Policies Presented as New Commitments
Sinergia claims credit for getting Aurora to end their use of surgical castration on pigs, but the company's website already indicated they don't use the surgical castration on pigs prior to the alleged commitment.
Sinergia claims credit for getting BRF to end their use of gestation crates in new projects, but BRF had already implemented a policy requiring this prior to the alleged commitment.
In all of these cases, Sinergia is taking credit for ending a practice that had already ended.
Sinergia Claims That With $1 They can "Liberat[e]" 354 Piglets from "Brutal Confinement"
Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE) analyzed Sinergia's work, and wrote them an evaluation. According to ACE's evaluation:
307.9 piglets affected per $1 is the "Lower bound" on the cost-effectiveness of Sinergia's work in 2023 to secure pig welfare commitments, with a "Best guess" of 354.1 piglets affected per $1.
Based on this, Sinergia claims that with $1, they are capable of "Liberating [...] 354 piglets [...] from brutal confinement and painful procedures."
This cost-effectiveness metric is inflated for several reasons, including:
- This metric is based on false claims provided by Sinergia (see above).
- This metric is based on false claims provided by ACE. For example, ACE claims that teeth clipping pigs is legal in Brazil until 2030, even though it has been illegal since February 1, 2021 (years prior to when this metric was calculated). This resulted in ACE giving Sinergia credit for helping millions of piglets in Brazil through teeth clipping commitments, even though teeth clipping was already illegal prior to the alleged commitments.
- Under this metric, a factory farmed piglet (male or female) is considered to have been "Liberat[ed …] from brutal confinement" if they are simply not surgically castrated.
- Surgical castration involves removing piglets’ testicles, which female piglets do not have. In spite of this, ACE gave Sinergia credit for helping over 30 million female piglets through surgical castration commitments that Sinergia allegedly secured.
Although ACE contributed to inflating this metric, Sinergia remains responsible since their claims played a key role in inflating it. Additionally, Sinergia should have validated ACE's calculations before advertising this metric to donors.
Below are several examples of Sinergia's advertisements.
Conclusion
Brazil is the world's 4th largest pork producer. In 2023, they slaughtered 46.5 million pigs. Sinergia estimates that the commitments they secured in 2023 alone help over 30 million piglets per year—all in Brazil, and claims they deserve 70% of the credit for helping these piglets.
Pigs in Brazil live in horrible conditions, and it is inappropriate for Sinergia to make false claims about "Liberating" them. Furthermore, Sinergia makes these claims to advertise their charity and encourage donations.
Charities must be diligent when making claims about their effectiveness. Donors trust charities to report their achievements and impact accurately. Charities that seriously violate this trust should not be funded. Accordingly, we do not recommend donating to Sinergia.
To receive updates when we publish new reviews, subscribe to our newsletter below for free.
References
References were last checked on February 18, 2025.