Question NW1601 to the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development

Reply:

The Meat Safety Act, 2000 (Act No. 40 of 2000) (“the Act”) does not prescribe which animals are to be farmed or slaughtered for consumption.However, it promotes the safety of the products and welfare of the animals listed under Schedule 1 of the Act. The afore-mentioned applies, irrespective of whether the animal is a conventional farm animal, game or wild animal, and regardless of whether game or wild animals originate from a captive-bred facility or from a natural system.

The Act provides for measures to:

• promote meat safety and the safety of animal products;
• establish and maintain essential national standards in respect of abattoirs;
• regulate the importation and exportation of meat;
• establish meat safety schemes; and
• provide for matters connected therewith.

The Department has made a proposal to amend Schedule 1 of the Meat Safety Act, which contains a list of animals to which the Act applies. The schedule proposes the expansion of the list of animals to which the Act applies, in order to ensure that where animals are slaughtered for human or animal consumption, these are slaughtered in a hygienic manner and animal welfare is observed.