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Algarve animals unduly suffer on their final journey to slaughter

vealThe Left Bloc has demanded that the Government arranges for the construction of a slaughterhouse in the Algarve with state of the art technical, hygienic and safety conditions.

The last facility in the Algarve was closed in 2007 and the draft resolution delivered to Parliament highlights the construction of a regional slaughterhouse as being "an absolute priority for the Algarve, in order to eliminate the inequality between livestock producers here and those in other regions of the country."

The long journeys contracted by cattle breeders in the Algarve to have their stock slaughtered in the Alentejo and in the Setúbal area, being the only ones located south of the Tagus river, add significant costs and hence, reduce profitability.

"On average, each Algarve producer has to travel about 1,000 kilometres to transport their animals to slaughterhouses. The transport involves two trips - the delivery of live animals and the collection of carcasses days later."

This is not a new topic. In November 2013 The Portuguese Communist Party reminded the then Minister of Agriculture, Assunçao Cristas, of the various initiatives that she championed from 2011 which seem to have evaporated as soon as she became a minister.

Cristas had "recommended that the Government urgently provide the investment to open a regional slaughterhouse in the Algarve, in the face of seriousness of the situation and the unbearable financial costs entailed for Algarve producers and the significant increase in the consumer price also resulting from this situation."

When she became minister for agriculture, this enthusiasm waned and the 2014 State Budget included little support for the Algarve’s farmers.

Cristas, now the head of the CDS - People's Party, also had promised to that dredging of the Ria Formosa lagoon area would happen - this too was left in her bottom drawer.

Earlier, in March 2010, farmers in Lagos, Vila do Bispo and Aljezur sent a letter to the Ministry of Agriculture asking for a new slaughterhouse.

The letter was sent by the Associação de Municípios Terras do Infante and claimed that small cattle producers had been crippled by the food inspection authority, ASAE, when it shut down the Algarve’s salughterhouses with no thought as to their replacement.

Apart from the cost of transport , farmers rightly claim that the quality of the meat is adversely affected due to the stress the animals suffer during transport. This leads to lower prices making the industry unprofitable if based in the Algarve.

In March 2010, the Left Bloc pointed out that no viable alternative slaughterhouse had been provided for Algarve farmers since the facility closed in 2007 and considered that the additional cost to farmers was unacceptable, “the construction of a regional slaughterhouse is an absolute priority for the Algarve," proposing it be included in the 2010 State Budget.

The best the government could do, in 2011, was to recommend in Diário da República that the private sector should build a slaughterhouse, and “recognising the need for such a facility.”

The Algarve slaughterhouse was closed in 2007 due to irregularities detected by ASAE, namely a lack of hygiene, a lack of air-conditioning in the cutting room and an unmonitored borehole water supply.

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Comments  

0 #2 dw 2017-05-30 13:49
And yet one Protestant northern European Prime Minister wants to bring back fox hunting.
+2 #1 Maxwell 2017-05-26 09:36
It is significant that the northern 'Protestant' EU countries began outlawing animal suffering spectacles such as bull and bear baiting as a consequence of the Reformation. 500 years ago.Which heralded a new way of seeing the world and one's faith. So significant that it is currently being celebrated across these countries and most obvious in its source, Germany. The Catholic teaching so often just veneering over previously accepted religious and social practices. Incorporating them into theirs.
So today we see the European Union repeatedly wrestling over how to standardise a minimum animal welfare standard - amongst certain EU countries that cannot comprehend a problem.

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