Decline of the abattoir

[The Land Is Ours]

extract from below news release: "...the number of red meat abattoirs in 
Britain has fallen from about 1350 in the late 1970s to 339 today, a fall 
of more than 70 percent. Because fewer, larger abattoirs are taking the 
majority of the business, many animals are having to be transported over 
greater distances for slaughter".

Tuesday, 27 February, 2001, 00:06 GMT
Decline of the abattoir      - (from BBC news online)

Abattoirs say their business is under threat

The seven-day restriction on animal movements imposed following the 
outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease is the latest blow to the UK's 
slaughterhouse industry.

Many smaller and medium-sized abattoirs have closed in recent years, with 
only larger establishments able to cope with the financial demands caused 
by tighter hygiene controls. Some argue that the trend towards smaller 
numbers of large abattoirs has made it much more difficult to tackle the 
recent foot-and-mouth outbreak.
Richard Young, an organic farmer of 27 years and a policy advisor for the 
Soil Association, said it made it harder to trace the source of the disease.
"The abattoir in Essex where the disease was first discovered buys pigs 
from virtually all over the country," he said. Because of that, when the 
Ministry of Agriculture was looking for the source of infection it was not 
just a ten-mile radius around the abattoir, it was the whole of the country."
The EU requirement that veterinary surgeons must also be present ... has 
caused the biggest single problem for small and medium-sized plants in the UK"

UK abattoirs have come under increased regulation since Britain joined the 
Common Market in 1973.  An EU directive introduced in 1991 imposed 
"prohibitively expensive" structural and procedural changes and called for 
greater levels of inspection. Many smaller and medium-sized businesses were 
unable to meet the costs involved, and closed.  Mr Young said the 
introduction in 1995 of the Meat Hygiene Service, which replaced the 
previous system of local authority meat inspection, resulted in even higher 
costs for many businesses. One medium-sized Durham abattoir saw its 
inspection costs rise from £44,000 in 1995 to £110,000 in 1999. "For 
smaller abattoirs the rise has been nearer 500 percent," said Mr Young. In 
total, the number of red meat abattoirs in Britain has fallen from about 
1350 in the late 1970s to 339 today, a fall of more than 70 percent. 
Because fewer, larger abattoirs are taking the majority of the business, 
many animals are having to be transported over greater distances for 
slaughter. Mr Young said that some suggested longer travelling times could 
increase the contamination of live animals "1000-fold".
After five years at college most vets see their vocation as helping live 
animals, not inspecting dead ones

The National Farmers' Union has acknowledged that "large parts of 
south-east England are now devoid of abattoirs".
Hampshire and Surrey have just one each, and there are none on the Isle of 
Wight, although about 3,500 beef cattle, 20,000 lambs and 4,500 pigs are 
reared there.  Mr Young said that some small-scale pig farmers in Berkshire 
are travelling to Bromsgrove in the West Midlands "in a desperate attempt 
to find an abattoir still able and willing to kill their pigs".
He said that having full-time meat inspectors in abattoirs was a 
"reasonable response" to increased food safety concerns. But he added: "The 
EU requirement that veterinary surgeons must also be present ... has caused 
the biggest single problem for small and medium-sized plants in the UK.
"After five years at college most vets see their vocation as helping live 
animals, not inspecting dead ones. As a result there is a critical shortage 
of British vets available."
Larger abattoirs are usually assigned a MHS vet costing around £30 per hour 
on average, but smaller businesses get agency vets whose fees can commonly 
be more than £60 per hour, and in one case £107.
 From April this year, abattoirs will have more costs to deal with, as 
levels of veterinary inspection will rise again, from 50 percent to 100 
percent of slaughtering time.



The Land Is Ours
... A Landrights Movement for All

The Land Is Ours campaigns peacefully for access to the land, its resources 
and the decision making processes affecting them, for everyone - 
irrespecitive of race, age, or gender.

Postal address :
16B Cherwell St, OXFORD, OX4 1BG, England.
or contact us at:  office at tlio.demon.co.uk
Press enquiries :  0961 460171
website :  http://www.oneworld.org/tlio/

For a year's subscription for the TLIO  newsletter (3 times a year), we are 
asking for £3 per annum.  Please make cheques payable to "The Land Is Ours". 
  ----------


---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.185 / Virus Database: 88 - Release Date: 18/08/00


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]