Marin County Approves Animal Slaughter For Small Producers
NICASIO (KPIX) -- A long and messy battle over animal slaughter has just ended in Marin County.
Ranchers have come out on top over animal-lovers' objections. The battle over livestock slaughter is over, but it was a messy one.
Until now, you could raise pigs intended for bacon on a small farm, but couldn't slaughter them in Marin County.
On Tuesday, the county voted to approve slaughter for small producers in Marin.
Mark Pasternak, of Devil's Gulch Ranch, said, "It's a huge benefit to be able to process those animals from an economic stand point, but also from just a humane and environmentally-friendly standpoint."
But there were plenty lined up to tell the Board of Supervisors Tuesday that slaughtering farm animals is in no way friendly and certainly not humane.
"The sight and sound of animals being slaughtered in our county would be a blight and a stain on one of the most beautiful places in the world," one resident told the Board of Supervisors.
Another resident told the board, "Some of the most powerful people on the planet...have all been vegans. Harming little animals is not where it's at."
But for farmers, it is.
They say this will keep them from driving their stock sometimes hundreds of miles to slaughter and give them more control over the way it's done.
Mobile units will be brought in for no more than three consecutive days a week for the four-legged animals, and up to 20,000 poultry and rabbits can be processed in permanent facilities on the farms.
"People lose sight of where meat comes from when all you do is go to Safeway and take a package out of the butcher counter. The meat comes from animals and it's important that people realize that," Pasternak said.
