A bloody disaster ! - The end of the road ?

John C · Post by **John C** » Tue May 16, 2006 1:23 pm

Last month the slaughter house in Caernarfon went down the pan .
Today I hear that the one in Anglsey has gone the same way taking with it the one in St Asaph !
This now leaves our closest abbatoir as being one in Wrexham . Thats a two hour drive from home in a car and goodness knows how long with a trailer and cow !
What am I and others left in the same boat going to do ?
Animal Welfare ?

ann · Post by **ann** » Tue May 16, 2006 1:44 pm

Hi

My butcher has warned me that he is not going to up grade for the new regulations which come in at the end of the year, however he is thinking of trying to become registered as a collection centre as he buys his cattle from the local market to sell in his shop, this way he would collect a lorry load of animals and send them to the nearest abattoir, who will deliver the carcases back to him, to hang and cut up.

this John may be the way for people to go in your area, I think everyone with specialist breeds is going to have to learn to work together, maybe the R.Breeds could get involved with this one, its certainly something to contact your local group about, and if you haven't got one, maybe a cross post to a few other small holders can come up with some idea’s.

Just a few thoughts, I think we are all treading un chartered waters at the moment.

areoch · Post by **areoch** » Tue May 16, 2006 10:39 pm

I don't suppose this will make you feel any better John C, but if I could leave home and be at an abbatoir within two hours, I would consider that to be most convenient.
Morton.

John C · Post by **John C** » Tue May 16, 2006 11:09 pm

I'm beginning to feel as though we are on an island mate !

Martin · Post by **Martin** » Wed May 17, 2006 8:10 am

Give up keeping stock John, Argentina and Brazil will have more than enough beef for all of us when they finally chop down the rest of the rain forest and put it down to grass. As for animal welfare, I'm sure the goucho's are well read on the subject, and records kept of every event that is neccessary. Otherwise the supermarkets wouldn't buy it would they?

John C · Post by **John C** » Wed May 17, 2006 9:27 am

I'm quite sure thats exactly what the government and the supermarkets want !
Incidentally the abbatoirs that we are talking about are not tiddly ones , they are or were big concerns !

Inger · Post by **Inger** » Wed May 17, 2006 12:14 pm

But you do live on an island John C. :;):

Life is indeed complicated if you can't get your animals killed conveniently. Is the government TRYING to kill off the beef industry in the UK? ???

Sylvia · Post by **Sylvia** » Wed May 17, 2006 5:58 pm

It is a well known fact that this government wants to kill off farming in the UK and turn the countryside into a theme park for the townies who make up this wretched government to play in when they feel like it. They think the countryside will stay just as it is, but lesss messy, without animals. And we will be much better off if we import all our food, as cheaply as possible, from whatever dubious source they can arrange.

They've tried food scares, submerging farmers in paperwork, making sure 'food miles' are not a consideration and everything else they can think of.

What they don't realise is that people dealing with livestock are well versed in dealing with whatever the weather, life and the universe throws at them. Covered in sh*t it is still possible to come up smiling.

I will now get off the soapbox, trundle out in the pouring rain to do the afternoon feed and check. Ain't life grand.

Jo Kemp · Post by **Jo Kemp** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 2:39 am

Some years ago I put forward an idea for a mobile abbatoir and soon after discovered there was one in Wales .... could that be of any help? Our local abbatoir looked into the pros and cons but decided it was too costly.
Jo