Renowned animal husbandry expert Dr. Temple Grandin has high praise for the chicken-processing operation at Lebanon County poultry producer Bell & Evans.
“They’re a very, very good company,” said Grandin. “I was really impressed awhile back when I was there. I visited them a number of years ago, and they’re a really good company.”
Grandin, who is autistic and known for her life-long work to improve conditions for animal handling, served as a consultant to the Fredericksburg-based company around 15 years ago, according to published reports.
Grandin spoke to LebTown in an exclusive interview about her experiences with Bell & Evans following her presentation at the Pennsylvania Farm Show on Thursday, Dec. 9, about her life’s work in animal handling and her advocacy for autism awareness.
“They (Bell & Evans) were one of the first to put in controlled animal atmosphere stunning. That was one of the things that they did that was a really good thing,” she recalled about her consulting work with the company. “I was really impressed how meticulous they were about cleaning the barns between flocks.”
Grandin noted another worthy attribute concerning Bell & Evans that is a secret to the success of any business.
“Just the attitude that they care about doing things right,” she added. “The thing that I have found that has worked for many, many companies, is that the top sets the tone. And if the top people want to do things right, then that tends to make other people in the company want to do things right. I found that to be true at a lot of companies, and I have worked for many of them throughout my (50-plus year) career.”
Grandin said successful poultry operations like Bell & Evans must have one overarching trait.
“To have high-performance chickens, you have to have high-performance management – and that goes all the way back to the breeders,” she said. “You have to start with really good breeders and really good eggs. If you start out with a poor chick, you’re going to have a problem going out to the broilers. You have to start with a good chick. I can’t emphasize (enough) how important that is.”
Grandin told LebTown that chicken processing requires the bird to be alive when hanging but doing so without anesthesia causes stress for the animal. She also noted the past practice of hanging birds live without sedation was not a good use of management’s time.
“You also have the big management issue of having to supervise people handling live chickens and putting them on the line,” she said. “When you go with the controlled atmosphere, they come in in the transport container and go right on the conveyor into the system. You no longer have to handle live chickens in the plant.”
Grandin noted that the handling of live birds led to abusive practices and “other bad things” to happen because those particular facilities lacked proper on-floor supervision.
“When you go with controlled atmosphere stunning, this is one of the few places where a piece of equipment removed a gigantic management issue,” said Grandin. “I think that’s really important. Usually you can’t fix a management issue with equipment, but this is one of the few times you can because you have removed the handling of live chickens.”
Grandin agrees with a quote attributed to Bell & Evans president Scott Sechler’s that was published in the Lebanon Daily News on Aug. 2, 2015, stating his belief that happy chickens and happy employees translate into happy customers.
“People then care about doing things right. Unhappy people tend to not do things right because they just don’t care,” said Grandin. “It’s important for the employees to know that management cares about them. I’ve worked in some really poor places that shall remain nameless where they were just working the employees into the ground and the plant was a broken wreck and the attitude was terrible. So I’ve seen the range from the very, very best to the terrible.”
Grandin is quoted on Bell & Evans’ website as saying, “The (SIA process) will be a big step forward in chicken welfare.”
While Grandin couldn’t remember what year she worked with Bell & Evans on SIA, a New York Times article published in 2010 states the process was to go online in 2011. The company’s website notes that “animal welfare advocates including Temple Grandin agree that Bell & Evans continually raises the benchmark for the entire poultry industry.”
That thought continues by stating, “As part of our commitment to humane treatment, we pioneered and continue to improve our Slow Induction Anesthesia (SIA). Our chickens are rendered unconscious over the course of six to seven minutes, in the safety of the drawers they are transported in from the farm. They’re never suffocated, stunned or dumped onto belts. This eliminates chickens’ pain, stress, fear and suffering.”
Concerning topics related to her presentation to a capacity crowd at the Small Arena, LebTown asked for her opinion about the movement away from scientific practices that have been proven to save human lives.
“I think it is a really bad thing because we need to solve real problems in the future,” said Grandin, adding that she has her students visit scientific databases as part of their studies to incorporate science into their learning.
While she said she didn’t want the interview with LebTown to become political, she did deliver one salient point about the nature of politics long ago that was her final comment .
“When I think about our generation, and this is the one thing I want to mention about politics,” said Grandin, who told the audience during her speech that she’s in her late 70s. “The Republicans built the interstate highway system; the Democrats went to the moon. This is in the ’50s and ’60s. We did things, we got it done.”
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