By MAE SINGUAY
BACOLOD City — A city government task force will investigate the alleged illegal animal slaughtering here.
Mayor Monico Puentevella, head of Task Force Butagoy, said he assigned Rey Demisana, head of the City Legal Office Enforcement Unit, to lead the probe.
Puentevella said they were yet to prove whether or not the allegation is true. He said no one has come to his office to complain.
Councilor Carlos Jose Lopez believes “illegal” slaughtering exists in the city.
He cited as basis the reduction in the number of butchered large animals at the city slaughterhouse in Brgy. Handumanan.
During last week’s meeting with the Sangguniang Panlungsod committee on markets and slaughterhouse, the manager of slaughterhouse operator AVM Bernardo Engineering said there was a “radical decrease” in the daily number of large animals butchered in the abattoir.
City Ordinance No. 459 established guidelines and policies in the apprehension of illegally slaughtered animals here.
Task Force Butagoy was created to enforce the ordinance.
Based on the ordinance, the task force is authorized to apprehend and confiscate any carcass or parts thereof of any illegally slaughtered animal, and any slaughtering paraphernalia.
Officials had said the butchering of animals outside the city slaughterhouse and in any non-accredited abattoir can be considered illegal.
Such meats do not undergo inspection and may be considered unsafe for human consumption, City Veterinary Office head Maria Agida Trinidad had said.
Puentevella returned to office yesterday following an official trip to Brazil./PN
