NOBULL: Tyson forms animal wellbeing advisory board
Posted in Daily
Tyson forms animal wellbeing advisory board
By Dani Friedland on 5/17/2013
Tyson Foods has created an independent Farm Animal Well-Being Advisory Panel for its FarmCheck program, the company announced Thursday.
The panel will help set research priorities and suggest ways to improve Tyson’s FarmCheck audit program.
Members of the panel include:
- Ryan Best, 2011-2012 president, Future Farmers of America
- Anne Burkholder, cattle feedlot owner
- Ed Cooney, executive director of the Congressional Hunger Center
- Gail Golab, Ph.D., DVM, director of American Veterinary Medical Association’s Animal Welfare Division
- Temple Grandin, Ph.D., professor of animal science, Colorado State University
- Karl Guggenmos, dean of culinary education, Johnson & Wales University
- Tim Loula, DVM, co-founder and co-owner of Swine Vet Center in St. Peter, Minnesota
- Miyun Park, executive director, Global Animal Partnership
- Ashley Peterson, Ph.D., vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs, National Chicken Council
- Richard Raymond, M.D., former U.S. Department of Agriculture Undersecretary for Food Safety
- Janeen Salak-Johnson, Ph.D., associate professor in Animal Sciences, University of Illinois
- Janice Swanson, Ph.D., chair and professor, Animal Behavior and Welfare, Michigan State University
- Bruce Webster, Ph.D., professor of poultry science, University of Georgia
Tyson noted that participation in the advisory board does not constitute not a public endorsement of the FarmCheck program, Tyson Foods or any specific animal well-being program.
I find it very interesting that, with the exception of one feedlot owner, there are no poultry, swine, or cattle producers on this board.
Isn’t their cooperation essential to making this effort work and shouldn’t they be well represented on this board?
Tyson needs to rethink what it is they wish to accomplish here…….
They are accomplishing exactly what they set out to accomplish, load the committee up with high credential people, but ones that in reality may not be fully knowledgeable of what is truly best for animal welfare. A little communication with people on the panel, and donating money in a direction best suited for whatever any panel member feels as a special need, and you may get more accomplished that one could ever imagine. That accomplishment would be to shift all things related to animal welfare during the grow-out period of the chicken directly to the grower, and relieve the company of another responsibility, very intelligent on Tyson’s part.
not sure what this means…is this saying that the welfare of the animals tyson owns was never something that was considered but a miraculous change of heart led to the formation of this…eer…well ‘advisory board’.
grab the saddle and slap on the collar..time to play that little game known as dog and pony.