Grandin Role Model

Temple Grandin is an extremely influential person not only in the animal welfare world but the autistic awareness world as well. She has influenced beef producers and the autistic population throughout the world. She has not only influenced the animal agriculture industry, but has also influenced my life personally. She is an extremely important role model in my life and most of the people in the animal welfare group. Dr. Grandin provided the United States with an innovative design of a curved chute, a new objective scoring guide for large corporations to use, and the center track restraint system. Dr. Grandin has personally influenced my life by teaching me the importance of autism awareness. Dr. Grandin grew up in a time when autism was
Grandin has also developed an objective scoring system used for assessing the handling of pigs and cattle at slaughter facilities. Large corporations across the United States have decided to use this scoring system in order to improve animal welfare in their corporations (2). This scoring system is used in order to determine the level of welfare of various animals during slaughter. For example, when scoring veal calves and lambs during slaughter veal calves that fall or that are stunned should be counted. There has to be 95% of calves that are stunned with one shot as well as other criteria. According to a study Dr. Grandin did at 11 beef plants, only 4 were able to stun 95% of cattle with one shot from a captive bolt gun (3). In addition, the number of animals that vocalized when stunned with a stun gun was 1.1% at plants where electric prods are utilized. This study provided insight to how various slaughter plants work and the animal welfare problems they have. This scoring system was an extreme step forward in the animal welfare area. Animal welfare activists across the world agree that animals should have the least amount of stress as possible. Having this criteria and scoring guide helps keep the public informed on the welfare level in certain
In the past, large animals were restrained primarily with brute force that stresses the animal and may even injure it. The system Dr. Grandin designed is used by supporting the animal under the brisket and belly (4). They ride peacefully on this machine which, again, helps increase the quality of the meat when slaughtered. Another beneficial aspect to this design is that Dr. Grandin made it to where the system is level and non-slip. This helped animals prevent injury if there is resistance when getting in this restraint system. The sides of the restraint system are closed so the animal will not be stressed if they see things that are unknown to them. Decreasing the chances of them being spooked while in the restraint system allows the animal to stay calm and prevent unnecessary injuries. The animal will “ride” this system until slaughter is done. Dr. Grandin claims that the amount of blood splatter is significantly reduced due to the enclosed sides as well (4). This helps keep the area as sanitary as possible which aids in keeping the animals