Wednesday, August 20, 2008 Only slaughterhouse meat is safe to eat: vet By Gil Alfredo B. Severino
BACOLOD City Veterinarian Adelo Daroy warned the public that only meat with the seal from the city slaughterhouse is considered safe for human consumption.
Daroy said meat without the slaughterhouse's seals are considered "hot meat," which Daroy explained, are animals slaughtered outside the new slaughterhouse and therefore illegal by virtue of City Ordinance 1-1974. The veterinarian office will also put up signs in meat stalls that sell 'slaughterhouse meat brand.'
Daroy also warned that the ordinance subjects violators to confiscation of the goods and its owner liable to legal action.
"The ordinance does not allow sending a monitoring team to areas where slaughtering takes place because the animals have to undergo ante-mortem procedures. Sending a monitor team to an illegal area is merely conducting post-mortem thus the danger if the animal is already dead before it is slaughtered," Daroy explained.
"All the casual employees assigned to the old slaughterhouse will be deployed as members of the task force to monitor 'hot meat' so that there is no need to worry about their displacements," he added.
He admitted though that at present, the City has no quarantine function to monitor meat coming from other provinces. "It is the province of Negros Occidental that has quarantine functions and manpower stationed in all seaports and airports."
Meantime, City Legal Officer Allan Zamora clarified that the "monopolistic character" of the memorandum of agreement (MOA) with AVM Bernardo is the investor's insurance for spending P54-million in rebuilding the slaughterhouse in Barangay Handumanan.
"Insuring the investor's rate of return (ROI) is normal for such a big amount placed in the slaughterhouse, otherwise AVM Bernardo could not have accepted the City's offer," he explained.
(August 15, 2008 issue) Write letter to the editor. Click here.
