The American Meat Institute this week released an informational brochure and video tour of a pork slaughter plant hosted by animal welfare specialist Temple Grandin, Ph.D., professor of animal science at Colorado State University.

The pork plant tour is the latest in a series of videos produced by the AMI's Glass Walls project. Grandin previously hosted a similar video explaining beef processing. The beef video, released in August, 2012, has been viewed nearly 50,000 times since its release.

Pork plant tour video is part of animal handling 'glass walls' project

The pork video begins on the farm in a finishing barn, shows pigs being loaded on trailers, unloading at the plant, stunning of pigs to make them insensible to pain, the bleeding process, carcass chilling and fabrication of carcasses.

The video explains the AMI welfare audit, which was developed by Grandin in 1997, and has become a global standard.

Grandin selected the two plants that are featured in the pork and beef videos as being representative of typical beef and pork plants. She was on-site for video taping and narrated the videos in her own words.

"I think we need to show people what's done in the industry when it's just done right in a typical large plant," Grandin says in the introduction to the video.  The brochure also includes a series of commonly asked questions about animal welfare with answers provided by Dr. Grandin.

AMI Senior Vice President of Public Affairs Janet Riley echoed Grandin's comments, noting that AMI recognizes that many consumers want more information about how livestock are handled and processed in meat and poultry plants.

"We were fortunate that Dr. Grandin, a leading expert on animal handling and welfare in meat plants, agreed to host the video tours and played such a pivotal role in their production," Riley said. "We are proud to offer an honest look inside our plants and to show the public our long-standing commitment to ensuring optimal livestock welfare."

The brochure is available at www.animalhandling.org.

View the video below.

Source: AMI