Butcher Or Supermarket???

sally belly wrote: We get our meat from the supermarket. Basically because I am too lazy to go separately to the butchers

Me too ;-) There aren't enough hours in the day as it is - plus I also think mad butcher meat is a bit funny.

summerlamb wrote: Oh and DH is an ex farmer and my understanding of homekill is the same as T-Rex's (although I'm sure it does go much wider than the immediate family).

Nope, they tightened the rules fairly recently - 1999 I think? It has to be the household of people directly involved in the day to day care. (You don't have to own the animal - for example, a farm worker can eat homekilled animals belonging to the farmer, because they were directly involved in it's care). But I can't legally get given homekill meat from my parent's farm now that I've left home. Luckily I have my own land and my own critters to eat anyway.

There are different regulations around marae though to effectively make it ok - something to the effect of the marae being the 'household' but it's been a while since I read the rules.

The other exception is that because I own and care for animals of a particular species, I can homekill another animal of the same species without having it for 28 days. The theory being that I would recognise if it was sick, and I would have the knowledge to ask the relevant questions regarding withholding periods if I was purchasing it to eat. So, because I own and care for pigs and sheep, for example, I could purchase a pig or sheep to homekill, however if I wanted to homekill a cattlebeast, I'd have to care for it for 28 days first.

It's also clearly stipulated in the legislation that "owning" and "caring for" the animal are not the same thing. Even if you own it, if you aren't involved in it's day-to-day care, you can't legally homekill it.

Can you tell I've had to read the legislation pretty thoroughly for work?

Of course, you'll do what you wish with the information, I'm just putting it out there so you know

Yep it is illegal to take it to a homekill butcher if you haven't cared for it for 28 days.

Legal options would be:
Find a butcher/abbatoir who will process it through the same chain that meat for sale is processed - where it gets vet inspected in a MAF approved facility. This can be done but can be a bit logistically difficult.
Or see if you can purchase a carcass or half a carcass from the butcher. That way the butcher has already had it processed legally.

xXELAx wrote: sally belly wrote: We get our meat from the supermarket. Basically because I am too lazy to go separately to the butchers Me too ;-) There aren't enough hours in the day as it is - plus I also think mad butcher meat is a bit funny.

Glad it's not just me then . Another thing with buying the bigger packets of meat from places like the Mad Butcher is that you have to divide it up & bag it when you get home. I have other things I'd rather be doing... esp when DH is away, I am busy enough

T-Rex - I started to reply but got confused but I assure you what we do is all done legally and well above-board.

Edited by MaebeeBaby

T_Rex wrote: Or see if you can purchase a carcass or half a carcass from the butcher. That way the butcher has already had it processed legally.

Ah-ha! Sorry I didn't see this post... this is exactly what I was meaning... this is how it works for us and is exactly what you have said:

*Friend raises the beef
*Beef goes to butcher
*We go to butcher and pick up our order, and pay butcher (butcher has order already made up because we all individually request what cuts we want on a 'request' list supplied by the butcher)
*We never pay Friend direct

This is how it is legal - I can see what T-Rex means now.

It is most certainly illegal to do an old-fashioned home-kill (ie in the shed out in the back paddock!) and sell the meat to your friends and family - this is definitely NOT commonly practiced down here!

I think I should have elaborated more on my comment of 'home kill' - I really mean 'home-bred and sent to the butcher shop for processing'.

Edited by MaebeeBaby