Game-dealer Hygiene Requirements Farce

[Taff]

we sell lamb by the box all prepared at one of the most prestigious slaughter/ packing plants in the country, all animals are bar coded, the boxes are bar coded to match, often we breed lambs apparently with 3 legs and more ribs on one side than the other.

 

[User00001]

I used to agree two prices at the start of the season for my fallow, one for all headshot adults (park generally), and one (obviously lower) price for all body shot deer and all carcasses under 15kg (small fawns). I would then insist on all carcasses being checked by the driver on collection, any that he considers damaged he should leave and I would cut them. Very rarely would any be rejected as they know that it generally evens itself out. Even an animal shot right in the middle of the saddle is far from ruined.

Having said this I am talking about major gamedealers who are big enough to take the rough with the smooth, I have found the ones that generally whinge the most are the smaller wannabe dealers who only want to buy five deer because they have sold five saddles.

I have always said that I will guarantee that carcasses are presented to the highest standards but I won't be dictated to in terms of where they are shot. I will never compromise welfare for the sake of a few pence per kilo. Any dealer that doesn't like this is welcome to buy elsewhere.

I would love to see the Police, EHO, Trading Standards, HMRC, Immigration etc all do a joint investigation on a few dealers.

I will not name names of the bad dealers that I have seen but I will give credit to Ben Rigby, I always saw high standards maintained throughout the process.

 

[re'M'ington]

Personally I keep all of the tags and the weights and price paid is all written down in a book,and I keep them all.

Martin

 

[Cyres]

Concur, when Martin had a roe off me tag filled out with all details, postcode and alike so direct tracability. Thats what it should be. Well if we can get horse in beef then just shows how laz the current mointoring regime is.

D

 

[cervus]

It might seem OTT,but I keep dated DNA samples for 12 months...forensic lab kit..in the freezer it goes,this in addition to tagging,my choice of course but pretty foolproof coupled with good records !