Temple Grandin uses “Critical Control Points” to measure animal welfare

By Jane Morrigan, M.Sc.

Temple Grandin is possibly the best known animal scientist in the world, given her work to improve animal handling systems in slaughterhouses and feedlots. She pioneered the concept of designing animal systems with an awareness of the species’ natural behaviour, i.e., from the animal’s point of view. Her influence has revolutionized the meat industry, with the incorporation of curved chutes, non-slip flooring and training of slaughterhouse personnel in low-stress animal handling techniques.

Dr. Grandin, a professor and researcher at Colorado State University, is famous for her direct, non-judgmental approach to ensuring “on the ground” improvements in how animals are handled during the pre-slaughter period. I once had the privilege of accompanying her during an audit of a large hog processing plant in Alberta, and I was very impressed with her no-nonsense style and the respect with which she was treated by plant management. Her work has shown clearly that improved animal handling leads to improved meat quality as well as increased profits, and large buyers of meat such as McDonald’s rely on her expertise in auditing their suppliers to ensure humane animal handling.

In addition to improving the design of animal handling systems, Temple Grandin has worked hard to develop ways to objectively measure animal welfare in slaughterhouses and on ranches and farms. Her motto is, “You manage what you measure.”

Dr. Grandin recently spoke at a workshop in Toronto that I attended called “Delivering Humane Food in Canada”, sponsored by the Canadian Coalition for Farm Animals. She reported on improvements made over the last twenty years, and discussed the concept of using Hazards Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) system principles in measuring animal welfare. Not only is animal welfare an important component of food safety, it can also be measured objectively using Critical Control Points (CCP’s). A CCP is specific, such as “All of the pigs must be able to lie down at the same time without being on top of each other”. This contrasts sharply with vague words (often used in codes of practice and other standards) such as “adequate” or “sufficient”, which mean different things to different people.

Dr. Grandin advised that an audit’s scoring standards must make it possible for at least 25% of farms (or slaughter plants) to pass the audit. In other words, the audit standard must be realistic and ensure success for the “best” producers. Once auditing is established as an on-going procedure and producers learn more about how to improve animal welfare on their farms, then the standard bar can be raised higher. “Numerical scoring makes it possible to determine if practices or the condition of the animals is improving or worsening”. Thus, continual improvements can be made in a fair and “measured” way.

Three CCP’s that are essential to measure on all farms, according to Grandin, include: 1) housing of the correct type as required (e.g., battery cages for laying hens may not be permitted, such as in organic egg production); 2) a euthanasia plan and/or equipment in place that is approved for their species and 3) access to clean water and having all feeding devices functional and well-maintained.

On-farm animal welfare audits or inspection can be tailor-made for each species and type of farm. For example, CCP’s on dairy farms include percentage of cows that are lame, percentage of cows who are too thin and skinny, percentage of calves who received colostrum, welfare guidelines for surgical procedures such as dehorning and castration, ammonia levels in indoor housing and space requirements for stalls. Standards for these can be set according to published methods such as lameness scores and body condition scores.

Temple Grandin has contributed greatly to establishing a pragmatic, scientifically credible method of using objective scoring of Critical Control Points in livestock production to measure animal welfare on a farm or in a slaughterhouse. The concept involved is both simple and powerful, and I am confident that the lives of farm animals will be improved significantly as on-farm animal welfare auditing becomes a reality on more and more farms.

 

Jane Morrigan, M.Sc. is the Website Co-ordinator for the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada (OACC), and is a former dairy farmer. Her Master’s thesis is “The Welfare of Cull Holstein Cows at an Abattoir”. She welcomes your comments or questions at oacc@nsac.ca or 902-893-7256.

For more information on low-stress animal handling techniques, objective scoring guidelines and animal welfare audits, see Temple Grandin’s website http://www.grandin.com

Posted December 2006