abattoir – Meatex

Defra Secretary George Eustice has been accused of ‘missing the point’ on slaughterhouse investment, after he suggested no local abattoir network policy was needed to accommodate Government plans for shorter livestock journeys.

Last week, the Government launched an eight-week consultation on improving animal welfare in transport, which included proposals to cut maximum journey times and ban live exports.

But on Tuesday (November 8), Mr Eustice refused to offer much-needed support for smaller abattoirs in order to meet these aims.

Speaking to MPs on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, he suggested supermarkets which stipulate animals must be sent to a particular slaughterhouse would need to change their supply chain policies in order to ‘accommodate the law’, but added: “We have looked at where all the slaughterhouses are, species by species, and then considered hypothetically how quickly farms in many different parts of the country could get animals to the slaughterhouse.

by Abi Kay