Taxpayer pays £200K a year to burn beef
Tuesday 16th March 2010, 2:29PM GMT.
Limited refrigeration facilities at the Victorian-era slaughterhouse mean all cattle dispatched there must be incinerated because of the length of time required for BSE testing. (0924843)
THE States are spending nearly £200,000 a year incinerating cattle that could be eaten locally.
Current legislation means all cattle over 30 months old at slaughter must be disposed of because the island’s abattoir does not have the refrigeration capacity to store the meat until the required BSE testing has been completed.
The States pays farmers £150 per cow to compensate them for the loss of an animal if it is over 30 months old then spends £250 incinerating it.
Guernsey Farmers’ Association spokesman James Watts said that in the UK, a farmer could get around £500 for a dairy cow at the end of its milking life.
The situation was nobody’s fault he said – but regulations needed to change.
‘The problem is the bureaucratic minefield, which is a tremendous waste of time.’
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