Unlicensed operator illegally slaughtered five hundred ducks and geese, 26 kg of rice blood cake nearly entered the market
Illegal slaughterers aren't afraid of fines and got caught again! Yesterday the Council of Agriculture's Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine (BAPHIQ) joined forces with the Taichung District Prosecutors Office to raid an illegal slaughterhouse in Shengang, seizing a total of 452 duck carcasses, 86 geese, 87.64 kg of offal and 26.98 kg of rice blood cake. Although it was initially determined that there were no notifiable infectious diseases, BAPHIQ said it would destroy all of these poultry and continue tracking down the downstream vendors who sell them.
Repeated Illegal Slaughter Without Fear, Police Crack Down Hard
Regarding the results of this raid, Dong Haode, head of BAPHIQ's Meat Inspection Division, said that this illegal slaughter operator had already been caught and fined multiple times for illegal slaughter by BAPHIQ and the Taichung City Government, but had not stopped his plans for illegal slaughter. Instead, he took advantage of the night when no one was around to continue operating, and even set up roadblocks and surveillance cameras outside the plant area, as well as keeping dogs to prevent the police from getting close.
To get the operator to completely stop illegal slaughter, this time BAPHIQ coordinated with Taichung prosecutors and police and, after applying for a search warrant, the police forcibly broke down the door and entered. Sure enough, they found the operator slaughtering ducks, geese and other poultry, but the plant area was extremely filthy and messy, with no inspection personnel accompanying. In response, BAPHIQ stressed that since illegal slaughter already violates the provisions of the Livestock Act, a first offense will be punished with a fine of not less than NT$100,000 and not more than NT$500,000, while a repeat offense will be punished under criminal law. Therefore, this operator faces a prison term of not more than 1 year and a concurrent fine of not more than NT$100,000, and BAPHIQ will also trace the flow of the meat products one by one.
No Control Over Hygiene and Safety in Illegal Slaughter, Easy to Spread Disease
As for what impact illegal slaughter actually has, Dong Haode pointed out that there are currently 109 poultry slaughterhouses nationwide, spread across counties and cities nationwide, with slaughter capacity sufficient to supply nationwide consumption. Poultry slaughtered in normal slaughterhouses must all be inspected one by one by slaughter hygiene inspection veterinarians stationed by BAPHIQ, and only those that pass can be shipped out for human consumption. Their main job is to remove poultry that is sick or of poor appearance, so that pathogens do not infect humans along the food chain and thereby cause other diseases.
"But illegal slaughter operators have none of this," Dong said. To evade BAPHIQ's raids, these illegal operators exercise no control at all over site hygiene, equipment safety or personnel standards, and they don't even care about the condition of the chickens, completely disregarding the cost of slaughter. If poultry slaughtered this way enters the market, it can easily cause disease transmission. Therefore, he stressed that in recent years BAPHIQ has already guided large numbers of illegal operators into the legal slaughter system, and last year alone it conducted 2,366 joint raids with local governments, uncovering 77 cases of illegal slaughter; all violators were fined, and raids will continue this year.
To prevent the public from consuming illegally slaughtered meat products, BAPHIQ also stressed that all poultry meat packaging that has passed inspection will have a sticker bearing the "BAPHIQ Slaughter Hygiene Passed" mark. Consumers are urged to look for it when making purchases, so that safety and hygiene are guaranteed.