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Who Is PAACO?( Click link above for a fact sheet on PAACO)PAACO BACKGROUND Successful livestock, dairy and poultry producers and their related industry partners provide sound animal care on commercial farms and harvest plants. Most animal and meat producer organizations have guidelines that are consistent with sound science and a consideration of economic realities. In the early 2000's, food associations representing their retail and food service corporate members asked producer groups to develop and send species-specific guidelines for their review. After consideration of adoption of all or part of these welfare guidelines, the retail and food service companies had an expectation that plant and on-farm audits of farm animal welfare would begin. Many species groups have some degree of well-being programs in place, ranging from educational to auditable: Swine Meat Packers Dairy Poultry
Cattle Professional animal science and veterinary organizations have direct interest in and expertise in farm animal welfare. Among the species-specific veterinarian organizations are the American Association of Swine Veterinarians (AASV), the American Association of Bovine Practitioners (AABP) and the American Association of Avian Pathologists. In addition, the research, teaching and extension expertise of the members of The Federation of Animal Science Societies (FASS) and The American Registry of Professional Animal Scientists (ARPAS) bring immense resources to the topic of animal care and handling. These organizations have supported and contributed their expertise to pork, dairy, beef and avian health, quality and care assurance programs. The process by which harvest plant and on-farm animal welfare auditors are qualified, trained and certified continues to be developed. Many groups require the plant and on-farm auditors and audit firms to have specific qualifications, experience and abilities. FASS, ARPAS, AABP, AAAP and AASV are professional, independent, science-based groups that have come together to initiate training and certification for on-farm and harvest plant auditors. Copyright © 2004-2005, Professional Animal Auditor Certification Organization (PAACO), Inc. |