PADA-ICofA Personality Assessment Livestock
PADA – Personality Assessment Livestock
Within PADA-ICofA Livestock, personality assessment is not intended to evaluate whether an animal is “good” or “bad”, nor to determine a single correct activity. Instead, the purpose is to describe behavioural tendencies that may influence how well a livestock animal is likely to cope with specific environments, expectations, and levels of demand.
Are you considering using livestock in therapy, education, green care, or other animal-assisted services?
This digital test is based on validated and standardised assessment tools. Your animal will be evaluated by an ethologist or certified professional trained within the PADA-ICofA framework.
Personality Assessment
Animals participating in animal-assisted services must be selected according to their intended role. They should be healthy, emotionally regulated, and meet safety and risk management criteria.
Livestock must demonstrate appropriate temperament, recovery capacity, and tolerance for proximity and handling in order to interact safely and predictably with participants.
Animal Welfare
Many environments in animal-assisted interventions can be demanding, involving unfamiliar people, sudden sounds, and unpredictable situations. It is not always easy to recognise when a livestock animal is uncomfortable. Behavioural inhibition may be mistaken for calmness, while subtle stress signals go unnoticed.
For this reason, the assessment focuses on observable behaviour, emotional regulation, and recovery following activation. Welfare always takes priority, and testing is stopped if the animal shows excessive stress or inability to cope.
Benefits of Personality Assessment
A structured personality assessment helps us:
Understand the individual animal better
Identify suitable environments and user groups
Prevent role mismatch and chronic stress
Create safer and more predictable working conditions
No animal is suited for everything, but every individual has traits that may make it particularly well suited for specific roles.
About the PADA Livestock Assessment
The PADA Livestock assessment is a digital test conducted in the animal’s familiar environment, without the need for travel or external evaluators on site.
After purchase, you will receive a detailed manual with step-by-step instructions for conducting the assessment and recording the required video documentation.
The completed materials are submitted for professional evaluation.
Based on the submitted documentation, you will receive:
A personalised personality profile of your animal
A certificate confirming completion of the PADA Livestock assessment
This process ensures a familiar and low-stress environment for the animal, while maintaining professional and standardised evaluation procedures.
✉️ If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at christine@icofa-community.com