Pakistan Today

Illegal slaughterhouses in the line of CDGL’s fire

The days of illegal slaughterhouses are numbered as the City District Government Lahore (CDGL) has launched a massive crackdown against them to purge the city of irregular abattoirs.
These slaughterhouses distribute the meat of dead animals as well as watered meat (both mutton and beef), in the provincial metropolis
The crackdown came after a long period of inactivity of the CDGL that helped the slaughterhouses to mushroom in the city.
Around 600,000 kilogrammes (kg) of meat is consumed in Lahore every day and around 200,000 goats or sheep and 20,000 buffaloes or cows are slaughtered every month to supply 160,000 kg of beef and 140,000 kg of mutton daily. Numerous raids were conducted on Tuesday on unlawful private slaughterhouses in different localities. Various teams, constituted on the direction of DCO Lahore Noor-ul-Amin Menghal, conducted 85 raids on suspected sites and registered 21 cases against butchers in different police stations. The teams also imposed fines of Rs 20,000 on butchers in this regard.
The DCO told Pakistan Today that the CDGL will eradicate illegal slaughter houses.
Sources in the DCO office told Pakistan Today that according to rough estimates, around 200 illegal slaughterhouses were operating within the city and its suburbs.
“Butchers are generally not aware of proper slaughtering techniques that cause loss of meat and its by-products. Animals are slaughtered in places which are frequently polluted with blood, intestinal contents and effluents. These are not well protected against insects and germs,” he added. He said that meat produced under such conditions quickly deteriorated due to bacterial infections and could cause food poisoning.
In the absence of inspections, he said meat from sick or parasite infected animals may well be a vector for spreading diseases, affecting human beings as well as other animals.
Live Stock Department official Gazanfar Murad said the slaughtered meat was transported to retailers’ through horse-driven carts, auto rickshaws, or pickup trucks. In the case of small ruminants, butchers take the meat on foot to the shops located nearby, he added.
“According to the West Pakistan Slaughter Control Act 1963, the slaughtering of small and large ruminants should be strictly by undertaken in recognised places with ante-and-post-mortem veterinary inspection,” he added.
He said the Punjab Local Government Ordinance also directed that the TMAs were mandated to manage, operate, maintain and improve the municipal infrastructure and services, especially the construction, management, operation, improvement and maintenance of slaughter houses. He stated that the TMAs did not bother to follow the rules.
Later, in compliance with the orders of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif the Punjab Agriculture and Meat Company (PAMCO), had succeeded in establishing a modern slaughterhouse and meat processing plant worth Rs1.30 billion at Shahpur Kanjran in collaboration with Iran closing its old slaughter house at Kot Kamboh.
After this, the CDGL assigned the PAMCO to run all the slaughterhouses of the city to ensure the provision of quality, cheap and hygienic meat to the citizens. An agreement was signed between the PAMCO, the CDGL and the TMAs a few months back.
According to the details of the agreement, the PAMCO will shift the load of all the old slaughterhouses to the newly built Lahore Meat Complex in different phases.
The old slaughterhouses will then be converted to wholesale centres for the sale of meat after the necessary repair and cleanliness measures were taken. The delivery of meat from new slaughterhouses to old slaughterhouses will be done free of cost by the PAMCO.
It was also agreed that the slaughtering fee will be reduced as compared to the earlier rates to keep the prices of meat under control.

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