Tighter laws on home-kill meat

Press, 8 September 1989, Page 19

Tighter laws on home-kill meat

The possession and trading of uninspected meat will be restricted under a Primary Products Bill to be introduced to Parliament in the next few months. The chief veterinary officer for the Ministry of Agriculture, Mr Andrew McKenzie, said the new regulations would make it easier for meat inspectors to investigate complaints of illegal meat trading and bring prosecutions. The existing law regarding trading in uninspected meat was difficult to enforce because sales were hard to prove. Mr McKenzie said the law was supposed to allow people, such as farmers,

to kill animals for consumption by themselves, their families and employees, but some people had exploited it and developed illegal commercial operations. “Those kinds of practices could compromise our export meat trade and risk the health of the New Zealand public and the country’s livestock.” The Primary Products Act would create a new offence — possession of uninspected meat. Farmers would still be able to slaughter animals for their own and their employees’ use. Other features of the new bill include the conversion of rural slaught-

erhouses into abattoirs or custom meat premises; the registration of itinerant slaughtermen; and a ban on the purchase of animals for immediate slaughter, except when bought for slaughter through an abattoir.

The bill, which has not yet reached the final drafting stage, will replace existing acts such as the meat, dairy, plants and apiaries acts, said a spokesman for the M.A.F. It was .one of . four major bills being drafted by the M.A.F. The bill would probably be introduced to Parliament later this year or early next year.