Mobile Abattoirs
For Better Animal Welfare
OVER the last 10 years many of our small-scale abattoirs have been shut down, leading to increased animal transportation.
According to research by the Sustainable Food Trust, this leaves a situation where the UK risks compromising their high animal standards of welfare and losing local meat supplies and traceability.
Mobile abattoirs as compact systems could be an ideal solution because they would allow the on-farm slaughter of livestock. Animals that have grown up and spent their entire lives on their home farm site could avoid a long and often traumatic journey to a distant abattoir.
Mobile abattoirs could travel between farms where the livestock could be slaughtered and carcasses dressed. This could give many rural farmers options as they could still send animals off to a central cutting plant, butcher their own product on site or share resources with other local farmers.
The Sustainable Food Trust proposal for mobile abattoirs has been outlined in a comprehensive report and highlights that similar facilities are also being trialed across France, Australia and Canada.
As yet no mobile units have yet been implemented in the UK although enquiries are being made and after conducting an online survey, they received 219 responses from farmers and consumers alike – most of which were overwhelmingly positive. It seems 92% of consumers agreed that they would pay a premium for animals slaughtered on the farm where they had been reared.
We are passionate about the possibility of mobile abattoirs and want to facilitate their success
For more information about the mobile abattoir proposal, please visit the Sustainable Food Trust at https://sustainablefoodtrust.org/
Or you can download a copy of their report here: http://sustainablefoodtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Re-localising-farm-animal-slaughter-low-res.pdf