[animalnepal] NP: Government apathy closes Nepal's only international-standard slaughter house

[Guest guest]

Well, that¹s the thing: without any resemblance of a government, any venture

of this scale is doomed to fail. It¹s really sad, as this effort was done

without any major involvement from an NGO or large donors - just business

people trying to do the right thing. The statement from MoLD (what an

unfortunate acronym) is telling: they just can¹t do anything full stop. Any

restrictions placed on small slaughters along the banks of the river would

no doubt result in protests and tire burnings or other things that have

traditionally sent our government into a panic. And providing incentives

for good business has never been a Nepali Government strong suit, unless

that business was tourism or textiles. So it seems like this could be a

strong lesson learned, if anyone is paying attention. Meanwhile, those

eating buff momos at their favourite street cart are the one¹s going to

suffer - along with the buffs with getting their throats cut down by the

river. Sad news indeed.

Jigs in Nepal

 

 

 

On 11/9/08 1:42 PM, " Lucia De Vries " <luciadevries wrote:

 

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>

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> Nepal's only internatial standard slaughter house will be closed in a month.

> Although the buffaloes continued to be transported under dreadful

> circumstances here they were at least killed with a stun gun. Nepal's

> livestock will continue to be killed with hammers and knives, out in the open.

>

> Govt apathy shuts slaughter house

> DEV KUMAR SUNUWAR KATHMANDU, Nov 8 - With the government failing to implement

> the Slaughterhouse and Meat Inspection Act-1999, the only

> international-standard slaughterhouse established with government assistance

> at Thankot seven years ago is to be shut-down in a month's time. The

> slaughterhouse named " Quality Meat Products Ltd. " was built under the Third

> Livestock Development Programme (TLDP) of the Ministry of Agriculture. The

> slaughterhouse was started with the concept of public-private partnership in

> 2001 with the aim of providing hygienic meat products to Valley dwellers. " We

> did not get a favourable environment for the smooth operation of the

> slaughterhouse, " said Hira-kaji Dongol, chief of Quality Meat. " This is the

> result of the government's failure to implement the Meat Act. " Following the

> endorsement of Meat Act, eight meat traders from the Valley had pooled

> together over Rs 30 million to construct this first and the largest

> slaughterhouse in Kathmandu Valley. But they had banked on the government

> banning unhygienic slaughter being practiced on the banks of Bishnumati and

> Bagmati rivers. " But the government's failure to follow through on its

> promise cost us dear. We had no option to closing down the slaughterhouse, "

> said Narayan Karki, one of the investors. The slaughterhouse was screening

> animals for sound health before slaughter, deploying veterinarians to ensure

> hygienic environment and keeping meat in deep-freeze prior to being sent to

> the market. Initially, the slaughterhouse processed over 50 buffaloes out of a

> total of some 600-odd slaughtered for meat in the Valley on a daily basis. But

> these days, it hardly gets 15 buffaloes. According to Karki, the centre needs

> over 100 buffaloes everyday to tide over the operating costs. And in the

> absence of any kind of external assistance it was only a matter of time before

> it shut shop, Karki said. The Act was endorsed after a number of research done

> on zoonotic diseases in Nepal pointed out the harmful effects of unhygienic

> slaughter methods on public health. To its credit, the government had provided

> financial and technical assistance worth Rs. 5 million for the construction of

> the slaughterhouse, laying the foundation for hygienic and ethical management

> of meat products. But Purnaman Shakya, Livestock Enterprise Development

> Specialist at Community Livestock Development Programme of the then TLDP,

> Ministry of Agriculture, blames the disagreements between the eight partners

> for the closing of the Thankot slaughterhouse. " The conflict between private

> partners sealed the fate of the slaughterhouse. " Questioning the rationale

> behind the meat traders pointing the finger at the government for not

> implementing the Meat Act, Joint Secretary at Ministry of Local Development

> (MoLD) Surya Prasad Parajuli said, " The government alone can do nothing

> without the cooperation of local authorities, meat traders and the ministry. "

> Posted on: 2008-11-08 18:54:13 (Server Time)

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