Taiwan needs sound regulations on butchering chickens, as half of all domestic chickens were killed in traditional markets under unhygienic conditions, environmental and animal rights activists said yesterday in the wake of the avian-flu outbreak.
Dozens of activists yesterday delivered a petition to the Control Yuan, asking for an investigation into governmental agencies in charge of public health and agricultural products. Activists performed a skit of the Executive Yuan failing to supervise its subordinates to prevent avian flu.
PHOTO: CHEN TSE-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
"The hygiene required when butchering chickens could not be stressed more at this point, where we are exposed to the potential spread of avian flu," said Chen Yu-min (
According to the society, about 200 million chickens slaughtered in filthy conditions in traditional markets are consumed annually nationwide. Activists said that they found that in traditional markets waste water contaminated by chicken giblets, feathers, chicken feces and blood was arbitrarily discharged.
Chen said that electrical slaughtering should include not only livestock but also poultry.
According to the Council of Agriculture (COA), the Husbandry Law (畜牧法) will be amended in July to put chickens onto the list of animals being regulated, along with cattle, sheep and pigs. However, the slaughter of chickens in traditional markets and at private homes would not be regulated.
"This is just a transition period. Our ultimate goal is to have chickens electrically slaughtered in as many slaughterhouses as possible," Chen Hsin-hao (陳幸浩), director of the council's Animal Industry Department, told the Taipei Times.
Since 2002, the COA has promoted the electrical slaughter of chickens and provides technical assistance to people who want to establish new slaughterhouses.
According to the council's statistics in 2002, 188.6 million broiler chickens and 164.4 million free-range chickens were produced domestically. About 90 percent of broiler chickens and less than 10 percent of free-range chickens were electrically slaughtered. Council officials said that the phenomenon could be attributed to consumers' shopping habits. Most consumers prefer purchasing freshly killed free-range chickens in traditional markets, they said.
"You can't say the meat of chickens slaughtered in traditional markets is unsafe. Inspectors from both health and agriculture agencies randomly sample products there," Chen Hsin-hao said.
To win consumers' confidence amidst the spread of low pathogenic avian flu, large campaign activities promoting poultry products will on Saturday be held by the council and its local units in 22 areas of jurisdiction. Chickens, ducks, geese and eggs will be served to about 100,000 participants at no cost. One of the guidelines for local event organizers, however, was to purchase poultry electrically slaughtered under conditions that meet the Chinese Agricultural Standards (CAS), a system ddesigned to ensure the safety of agricultural products, as far as possible.
Animal right activists said following the guideline was tricky.
"Governmental officials encourage consumers to have confidence in buying non-CAS chicken products from traditional markets, but themselves prefer CAS products," Chen Yu-min said.
Citing a recent survey in Hong Kong by the Wen Wei Po newspaper, Chen Yu-min said that about 98.6 percent of respondents agreed that a central slaughtering regulation was needed to ensure the best public health.
"When people are terrified enough by avian flu, they will learn the importance of sanitation and the need to change their habits," she said.
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