Basseterre, St. Kitts, January 15, 2022 (SKNIS): Deputy Chief Environmental Health Officer, Glenville Leader, during his appearance on the radio and television show ‘Working for You’ on January 12, 2022, said that it is illegal to slaughter animals in your backyard.
He said that the practice of slaughtering animals in your backyard “is illegal under the offensive trade regulation which covers the slaughtering of poultry, animals such as cows, sheep and goats or dealing with blood and boiling of any products associated with this activity and storing of hides and gut scraping.” Gut scraping is the removal and disposal of the entrails of the animal.
He continued, “For you to be engaged in that you first have to apply to the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and the law stipulates that you have to take all animals to the public abattoir.”
The reason it is against the law is for hygienic purposes.
“We have engineered the abattoir which was designed for that intended purpose and so it has all the requirements necessary to ensure that the meat meets certain requirements before it comes to the general public,” Mr. Leader said.
He also added that when you do not follow the proper protocols for butchering, you are putting the public’s health at risk.
“There is also another law, which is the General Market and Meat Act which states that the CMO shall designate any area for the slaughtering of meat, and the Basseterre Abattoir and the Sandy Point Abattoir weredesignated for that purpose,” the Deputy Chief Environmental Health Officer said.
