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Select and Slaughter is Prohibited

Some homekill operations in New Zealand have involved a person (client) selecting an animal from a farmer, and then having the farmer immediately slaughter the animal for the person to take away, or providing the facility and equipment for the client to slaughter the animal at the farmers place. Such 'select and slaughter' activities undermine the policy intent of Part 6 of the Animal Products Act, and could impact on public health and New Zealand's trading status. This concern is based on a number of factors including:

• those who could take advantage of this type of 'select and slaughter' activity would not have had an involvement in the day-to-day maintenance of the animal and therefore would not have the knowledge about the animal that would allow them to make an informed decision as to the fitness of that animal for consumption. This raises potential public health and safety concerns;
• an increase in 'select and slaughter' activity brings with it potential flow-on problems of disposal of waste, difficulty of trace back should health consequences arise, or animal welfare concerns if inexperienced people are slaughtering animals;
• an increase in the level of homekill activity, and therefore the amount of unregulated product available, increases the potential for such product to enter the regulated system;
• with increased potential for unregulated product to enter the regulated system, New Zealand's market access status for some markets could be threatened; and
• in order to manage the risk to market access status, an increased level of compliance checks and monitoring would likely be required.

Such 'select and slaughter' activity is really about trading homekill product and is prohibited.

There is a clear offence provision in the Animal Products Act relating to this illegal activity carrying a maximum fine for a body corporate–$300,000 and an individual–$75,000. Under this offence provision, both the person buying 'selecting' the animal and the person providing the facilities for the 'slaughter' are able to be charged.

At the heart of this prohibition is the policy intention that those persons who are animal owners can kill and process their own animals only on their own property, or use the services of a homekill and recreational catch service provider only if they have been engaged in the day-to-day management of the animal, or other animals of the same kind, for a period of at east 28 days.

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