Cape Breton loses its only licensed red meat abattoir

The owner of Cape Breton's only government-licensed abattoir for red meat says he is forfeiting his licence out of frustration, meaning his customers who want to sell commercially will have to leave the island to get their animals slaughtered.

Donnie MacNeil said his problem is twofold: he claims inspectors from mainland Nova Scotia won't come to his Lambscapes Farm in Point Aconi in a timely manner and there has been little done to prevent non-licensed facilities from selling ungraded, uninspected meat to consumers.

"It's created a very unleveled playing field over the years and it's gotten considerably worse," MacNeil told ​CBC Radio's Mainstreet Cape Breton in an interview Friday.

Ditching inspection program

MacNeil's father opened the operation more than 30 years ago to serve livestock producers in Cape Breton. 

Without a licensed facility, which cuts and grades meat, farmers will not be able to take their lamb, pork or beef to commercial sales outlets like farmer's markets or supermarkets.

Even non-commercial customers may lose out, MacNeil said, because many of them still want Canada Grade meat even when they buy directly from producers.

The provincial Environment Department said Cape Breton still has a licensed poultry abattoir operating in Margaree Harbour.

MacNeil said it takes too long for inspectors to get to his facility. He said the distance has always been an issue, but that there's always been a "good level" of co-operation between his company and the provincial inspection program.

But he said the program has gradually gotten worse since the province's Environment Department took over the work from the Agriculture Department.

Left 'high and dry'

He said last year, out of 12 processing days, he had five cancellations where "they left me high and dry with no inspector and that means I can't operate."

"In some cases, I had to hold animals on site for weeks at a time or expect a client to come back and retrieve their animals until I could get an inspector," he said. 

Bruce Nunn, a spokesperson for the Environment Department, disputed MacNeil's claim of five missed appointments, saying in an email that inspections were rescheduled just twice in 2017. In both cases, Nunn said an inspection was provided within two days of the cancellation.

MacNeil said his customers would grow tired of waiting in between inspections and "turn to the backyard butchers who have no restrictions, so that doesn't serve anybody's purpose — especially the public who is not going to know what they're getting for a product when that happens."

While the regulations allow for farm-gate sales — where a farmer may butcher animals raised on site for direct sale to the final customer — some people are skirting the rules, he said.

Complaints have gone unanswered, MacNeil says

"A lot of these guys, they're going to other farms, they're slaughtering in the field and dragging the carcass back to their facility, which may take an hour or two, and then the product is being resold."

These backyard butchers could be "doing things on the barn floor or literally in the backyard," he said. "Some of them have running water, some don't."

MacNeil said he has made verbal complaints to the departments of environment and agriculture over the past 10 years to little effect.

With business taking a hit, MacNeil said it would be difficult to come up with the money needed for upgrades to the facility to keep its commercial licence. He estimates that would cost between $20,000 and $30,000.

Environment Department responds

Nunn said inspectors respond to every complaint "and take action to curtail illegal meat processing practices."

As for MacNeil's facility, the department said Lambscapes needs upgrades to meet the requirements for licensed abattoirs but the facility has not complied. The department said it has withheld inspections of Lambscapes for this reason.

The department said it has been consulting with abattoir owners over the past few months on the best ways to support them. 

It also said 15 inspectors provide meat inspection services across the province, including in Cape Breton. The department said it is hiring and training more inspectors.

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