PAACO Certifies Meat Plant Auditors

August 24, 2006 — 

The Professional Animal Auditor Certification Organization, Inc. (PAACO) recently certified eleven animal welfare experts as foundation meat plant welfare auditors.

This group of auditors has been certified to conduct meat plant welfare audits for cattle, swine and sheep based on the American Meat Institute's (AMI) guidelines. As foundation auditors, they will also oversee shadowed audits of 19 auditors-in-training who have already completed a two-day in-plant course and passed an examination. Successfully completing three shadowed audits will qualify the trainees as certified meat plant welfare auditors.

PAACO's mission is to positively affect quality animal welfare auditing. It currently conducts training and certification in meat plant and poultry welfare auditing, with both types of training to be held in late September. The foundation auditors represent various segments of the animal industry and some have served as instructors for PAACO's training course. They are:

• Angela Baysinger, DVM, MS - Farmland Foods
• Paul Dubois, DVM - Cargill Pork
• Temple Grandin, PhD - Grandin Livestock Systems
• Bill Lewis, senior auditor, Silliker, Inc.
• Dragoslav Pavlovic, DVM - Silliker, Inc.
• Kellye Pfalzgraf, DVM - Tyson Foods
• Bruce Rafoth, DVM - NSF, Cook & Thurber
• William Rannells, DVM - NSF, Cook & Thurber
• Mike Siemens, PhD - Cargill
• Maggie Smith, MS, CQA, CHA - Process Management Consulting
• Erica Voogd, MS - Voogd Consulting, Inc.

According to its website, PAACO, of which AASV is one of five founding organizations, serves to promote the humane treatment of animals through education and certification of animal auditors and to promote the profession of animal auditors.