Cape Coast, Nov. 21, GNA- The Environmental Health Unit of the Cape Coast Municipal Assembly (CCMA) has put in place measures to seize and destroy carcasses of livestock slaughtered at the abattoir without due supervision by the unit and the veterinary services. The Assembly has therefore mounted surveillance at the slaughterhouse in Cape Coast to arrest the recalcitrant butchers and prosecute them to serve as a deterrent.

The Municipal Environmental Health Officer, Nana Poku, told the GNA in an interview at Cape Coast on Tuesday that the assembly was determined to stem the practice to safeguard public health since "you cannot live in a society and allow lawlessness to prevail". According to him, the assembly had not been able to arrest anyone yet, because "anytime we are tipped off, the culprits run away before we get there, that is why we are mounting the surveillance". He explained that officials from his unit and the veterinary services report at the slaughter house daily from 0600 hours to 1000 hours to ensure that the animals brought there for slaughtering are healthy and done under hygienic conditions. He claimed that although the supervising officials have asked the butchers to contact them if they had more livestock to slaughter after 1000 hours, they do not do so.

Nana Poku said some of the butchers intentionally wait till they have left the slaughterhouse before they bring in the animals, some of which are not healthy.

According to him, some of the butchers also want to avoid paying levies to the assembly and the veterinary services. Ismalia Sarikin, a spokesman for the chief butcher accused the CCMA of neglecting the slaughterhouse by not ensuring its proper management, leading to the deplorable state. According to him, the assembly had refused to connect water to the premises and have also not provided the necessary amenities, and that all that the officials were interested in, "was carrying away free meat".

Meanwhile, the Central Region Livestock Farmers Association (CERLFA) has begun registering butchers in the region to enable them to undergo medical examination to ensure that they are healthy to sell to the public.