Private Slaughter of Livestock - Guidance Notes Wales

Tuesday 24 May 2005

This Guidance sets out the options and requirements for the private slaughter of livestock, and replaces the Guidance issued in December 2003.

Private slaughter is the killing of an animal for personal consumption by the owner. Such slaughter and consumption is often considered to be a human right of the animal's owner, although the lawful options for carrying this out have not always been clear either for the owner or for the enforcement authorities.

Where slaughter is carried out for private domestic consumption and the meat is not placed on the market (whether free of charge or not) such activity falls outside the scope of the European Union (EU) Food Hygiene Regulations 852/2004 and 853/2004. However, it is unlawful to supply the meat of cattle, sheep or goats to a third party, including family members, unless the Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (Wales) Regulations 2006 and the EU Animal By-Products Regulations 1774/2002 have been complied with. In practice, this is only possible if the meat has been slaughtered in an Approved Slaughterhouse.

It is fundamental to the operation of the EU Food Hygiene Regulations that the slaughter of animals intended for placing on the market for human consumption must, in almost all cases, take place in an Approved Slaughterhouse or, in the case of farmed game or poultry, in an Approved Farm Slaughter facility.

Such slaughter would, among other things, be subject to ante mortem and post mortem inspection by the Meat Hygiene Service.

Private slaughter in an Approved Slaughterhouse is lawful. However, it does not necessarily follow that it would be unlawful if a private kill did not take place in an Approved Slaughterhouse. This is because the hygiene regulations apply to meat intended for placing on the market for human consumption. Thus, private slaughter that was not conducted in an Approved Slaughterhouse would, in principle, be lawful if it was not intended that the meat should be placed on the market.

This guidance therefore seeks to explain what 'placing on the market' means in this context. The guidance also explains how Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy controls affect the lawful options for private slaughter.