By MAE SINGUAY
BACOLOD City — There is illegal slaughtering of animals in this city, and the decrease in the number of animals butchered in the slaughterhouse here is enough indication. Or so says Councilor Carlos Jose Lopez.
Lopez, chair of the Sangguniang Panlungsod committee on markets and slaughterhouse, yesterday held a consultative meeting on the reported illegal slaughtering here.
Officials said the butchering of animals outside the city’s slaughterhouse in Brgy. Handumanan and in any non-accredited abattoirs can be considered illegal.
Such meats do not undergo inspection and may be considered unsafe for human consumption, said City Veterinary Office head Maria Agida Trinidad.
Glorydee Cometa, manager of city slaughterhouse operator AVM Bernardo Engineering, reported that there was a “radical decrease” in the daily number of large animals butchered in the slaughterhouse.
Large animals (horse, cows and carabao) slaughtered for Libertad Market alone numbered an average of 18–20 daily in May, but they decreased to five to seven in June, Cometa said, adding that their operation had lied low by 60 percent.
Lopez believes this is enough indication that there is indeed illegal slaughtering in the city.
He said he will work with Mayor Monico Puentevella, current Task Force Butagoy chair, in addressing the issue.
On February 27, 2008, the Sangguniang Panlungsod approved City Ordinance No. 459, which seeks the establishment of guidelines and policies in the apprehension of illegally slaughtered animals in the city and the creation of a task force — Task Force Butagoy — for its implementation.
Trinidad said she cannot say if there is really illegal slaughtering in the city.
She said there are only two slaughterhouses in Negros Occidental accredited by the National Meat Inspection Service: one in Brgy. Handumanan here and another in Victorias City.
Meats from non-accredited slaughterhouses have not undergone inspection and may not be safe for consumption, Trinidad said./PN
