Animal Attendants

History

The current ATA Animal Attendant Program was conceived and formulated by Joseph N. Santarelli, and Martin Atock the then Co-Chairs of the ATA Equine Committee in 1994, as the first Equine Attendant Registration program in the world.

It was an effort of our Equine Committee representing industry Leaders being proactive in their efforts to self regulate and elevate the standards within our industry and therefore the welfare of the horses being shipped world-wide. It came as a direct result of years of unqualified and unsuitable grooms being put on flights and responsible for horses without the knowledge, or experience to do so.

This ATA industry led initiative evolved from ATA making contact with over 33 countries and more than 75 companies as well as the Ministries of Agriculture in most of the developed nations in the world. This initiative was led by the Equine Committee over a two year period. We became particularly encouraged to pursue our initiative by various Government representatives around the world, and in particular by Minister of Agriculture Elliot Morley speaking at our International conference in Burnham England in 1999.

EU directives requiring the employment of 'competent' animal handlers during transport were then issued, but the Directives failed to define what "Competent" meant. Individual Member states were required to interpret these Directives in their own individual ways. In the UK, "competences" were very clearly outlined and a Government sponsored body already existed for assessment of such competences.

At the request of the Equine Committee of ATA, we approached The National Proficiency Test Council in Great Britain (NPTC) to establish an examination or assessment of competence to be carried out by trained assessors. This assessment had to be independent, acceptable to the UK Government, acceptable to other EU Member states and Governments / Regulators and industry leaders in other parts of the world. Mr. Steve Hewitt of the NPTC proved to be forward thinking and welcomed the opportunity to establish such a plan.

It took years of trial and error before the first group of grooms were registered under the program, but eventually the ATA entered into a contractual agreement with NPTC to administer the program. The ATA began registering Equine attendants in 2000 and the program became recognized on an international level for its uniqueness and foresight.

The Equine Committee contacted the Live Animal & Perishable Board of IATA to recognize the program. The Board amended the LAR to include the word "competent" as a requirement for animal handlers, but failed to specify what this meant.

The ATA approached the LAPB of IATA in 2003 to consider adding text to the LAR in an effort to define competency. During a meeting in Montreal, the ATA withdrew its formal request and agreed to participate in a working group within the LAPB to establish text defining competency. The committee did in fact agree on terms of definition and the new text was approved and the LAR included this update with the 2004 publishing.

The Board of Directors of the ATA appreciates and supports the efforts of the working group of the LAPB in their cooperation in this effort.

Once this text was approved, the ATA decided to phase out the simple ATA registration Program entirely, opting for the ATA independently assessed Animal Attendant program.

Since the events of September 11th, security of airline crews and personnel has been tightened, and has created a greater interest in the ATA Animal Attendant program. In response to this world-wide security crisis, our attendants are now required to submit a 10 year criminal background check from a government authority showing a clear record before they can be eligible for acceptance into our program.

All applicants applying for registration within our program effective Jan 1st, 2004 must submit to independent assessment through NPTC assessors before they can qualify as ATA Animal Attendants.

Today, ATA has a well established Animal Attendant Program for equine grooms and zoological attendants with competency assessed according to NPTC requirements. As with the Equine Attendant program, ATA launched the world's first Zoological Animal Attendant program in 2008.

The ATA Animal Attendant Program
was the result of a long process involving many years.
The non profit status of ATA made this project
all the more difficult, relying on the private resources
of its members to contribute their own funds
toward to successful completion of this initiative,
for the betterment of industry standards.

It was made possible by generous grants

from the following ATA member companies:

Click below to find out more about these companies.