FSO NOTIFICATION

Slaughter at the altar of violation, ill-health

Check out this scene at a tiny mutton stall on Palace Guttahalli Main Road. The stall is attached with a “room” that is not more than 16 sq feet in area. Four alive goats are kept in the “room”. The butcher walks in and slaughters three, one after the other (halal style), in full sight of the surviving ones. The scene, if not just cruel, is also in gross violation of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Slaughterhouses) Rules, 2001, and the Karnataka Municipal Corporation (KMC) Act, 1976.

Most mutton stalls located in the city are conducting slaughter within their premises in gross violation of the stipulated rules.
Dr Pervez Ahmed Piran, joint director, animal husbandry department, BBMP, said: “Slaughter of animals is allowed only in licensed slaughterhouses. If there are people conducting slaughter within their premises that are not fit to be declared as a slaughterhouse, then what they are doing is absolutely illegal.”
Piran said meat stalls are supposed to procure meat for retail sale from licensed slaughterhouses only; they cannot conduct slaughter within their premises.
He said even this can be allowed only after a pre-mortem (before the slaughter) and post-mortem (after slaughter) inspection is conducted by veterinarians attached to the BBMP or by authorised officials.
The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Slaughterhouse) Rules, 2001, states: “No animal shall be slaughtered in a slaughterhouse in sight of other animals”. While the rules pertain to a slaughterhouse, these two establishments on Palace-Guttahalli Main Road are, by definition and law, not even that. They were just meat stalls that are supposed to merely sell meat, not conduct slaughter.
DNA inquiry revealed that a majority of the meat stalls in the city, located mainly in areas of Chandra Layout, RT Nagar, Palace-Guttahalli Main Road, Mahommedan Block (in Malleswaram) and some congested residential areas in the city’s suburbs, resort to slaughtering goats/sheep within their premises without adhering to the rules specified for slaughter. More significantly, none of these are supposed to conduct slaughter.
The rules clearly state: “No person shall slaughter any animal within a municipal area except in a slaughterhouse recognised or licensed by the concerned authority empowered under the law.”
The KMC Act, 1976, section 367, which pertains to slaughter of animals for sale or food, too, states: “No person shall slaughter within the city except in a corporation or licensed slaughter-house any cattle, horse, sheep, goat or pig for sale or food or skin or cut up any carcass without or otherwise than in conformity with a licence from the Commissioner....”
‘Licence’ to kill
Interestingly, the owners of a number of meat stalls across the city that DNA visited, claimed to have licences to operate as slaughterhouses. Shockingly, some of these even employed boys in their mid-teens although the rules state that no one below the age of 18 can be employed in a slaughterhouse in any capacity.
Also, most meat stalls in the city cannot be allowed to operate as slaughterhouses because they do not conform to the norms set for slaughterhouses to be recognised as licensed ones.
One of the norms states that the slaughter halls in a slaughterhouse should provide separate sections of “adequate dimensions” sufficient for slaughter of individual animals to ensure that the animal to be slaughtered is not within the sight of other animals. None of the stalls that DNA visited conform to this, but still persist with slaughtering animals. According to BBMP, there are about 3,200 licensed meat stalls across the city and another 10% may be operating without any trade licence.
‘Our responsibility’
Suparna Ganguli, president, Compassion Unlimited Plus Action (Cupa), says “This practice should be stopped immediately. It is because the demand for meat is so high that such people exist. People should follow some standards and restrictions while consuming meat.” She feels meat-eaters should feel responsible in allowing such stalls to continue operating. “It is also from the health point of view. You wouldn’t want to eat meat of traumatised animals. There are stress hormones which are released into the bloodstreams of such animals, which can affect health if we consume such meat.”