Wisconsin Ag Connection - Oscar Mayer, UW-RF to Lead Animal Welfare Awareness Effort

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Oscar Mayer, UW-RF to Lead Animal Welfare Awareness Effort
Wisconsin Ag Connection - 07/11/2014

Oscar Mayer unveiled the details of a three-year project in which the company will team up with the University of Wisconsin-River Falls to focus on animal welfare issues. Specifically, the initiative will help train the next generation of animal welfare leaders--such as farmers, scientists, processors and veterinarians--to find solutions that are right for the environment, while maintaining a sustainable way for suppliers and their farm families to do business.

"From the beginning, Oscar Mayer has been committed to finding better ways," said Tricia White, Oscar Mayer's vice president of research and leader of the company's animal welfare team. "Investing in the future of our industry through this partnership is one way we continue to create food that consumers feel good about."

Dale Gallenberg, dean of the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences at UWRF, adds that the program will increase its focus on training the next generation of food animal producers, scientists, processors, veterinarians and consumers equipped to address and implement animal welfare solutions.

The three-year partnership names Kurt Vogel, Ph.D., assistant professor of animal science at UWRF, the Kraft Foods/Oscar Mayer faculty scholar. In addition, the partnership will help further develop animal welfare education at UWRF and provide research in the area of food animal welfare. It will also create a public, online resource that addresses relevant animal welfare issues.

"Through this partnership, we are teaching the next generation of animal welfare professionals how to properly treat and evaluate livestock," said Vogel. "The commitment Oscar Mayer is making to our students really shows that they understand the role they can play in improving animal welfare."

Thanks to funding from Oscar Mayer, which is a division of Kraft Foods, two new animal welfare courses will be added to the UW-RF animal science program that focus on complex animal welfare issues and procedures. Outside the lectures and laboratories, a team of students will be competing in the national Intercollegiate Animal Welfare Judging and Assessment Contest for collegiate animal science students on an ongoing basis.

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