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PR Newswire
WASHINGTON, Aug. 13, 2012

Temple Grandin-Authored Guide Spurs Dramatic Changes In Livestock Handling at Meat Plants Over Two Decades

WASHINGTON, Aug. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The American Meat Institute Foundation (AMIF) today unveiled the 2012 Recommended Animal Care & Handling Guidelines & Audit Guide, now in its 15th year. Authored by leading animal welfare expert Temple Grandin, Ph.D., the audit guide has revolutionized the way the meat packing industry handles animals and measures animal welfare based upon simple core criteria.

The audit grew out of a report that Grandin did for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1996, in which she hypothesized that animal welfare did not have to be subjective, but rather could be evaluated objectively using numeric criteria. AMIF asked Dr. Grandin to author an audit based upon this concept, and the original version was released in 1997. By 1999, major restaurant chains began requiring audits as a condition of doing business and other customers soon followed.

Today, an estimated 95 percent of cattle, pigs and sheep are processed in plants that use the audit program. The guidelines and audit also are used globally and are a key component of major humane certification and labeling programs like American Humane Certified and Certified Humane®.

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