Meat and Feast

Today I was going through the "Animal Slaughterhouse and Meat Inspection Act, 2055(1999)" of Nepal to compose my assignment on the related subject matter. In the very first place, I was happy to know that there is such an Act in Nepal even though the implementation part as like many other acts is not satisfying at all.Some of the points that caught my interest were

• Nobody shall establish a slaughterhouse or become a meat seller without obtaining license under this Act.
• Examination of Animals before slaughtering (Ante-Mortem Examination)
• No sale of meat of dead animal due to disease or any other cause shall be allowed.
• No sale of meat with skin shall be allowed.
• No meat seller shall sell any meat without having stamped or marked from the meat investigator after the investigation 
• it prohibits the sell of adulterated meat i.e. no two or more types of  meat from different species can be sold together or mixed
• punishment for violation of this act starts with penalty of five thousand to twenty thousand and/or imprisonment of three month 
• No slaughtering is allowed elsewhere except for religious sacrifices and research purpose

Well, I doubt if there are hardly fifty slaughterhouse following the provisions as per the act and same applies to the investigation team or whatever they name it. Most common example of non implementation of the act is whenever we get meat from the shop we also have to take the skin included while weighing and pay and only after that if we do not want skin, ask to separate from rest of the meat.

Dashain, one of most widely celebrated festivals of Nepal is very close and the Khasi bazar are quite active these days and so are the issues of meat consumption. Dashain is famous for consumption of meat among all Nepali and since the sacrifice of animal is permitted by the act itself poses a vulnerable state for unhygienic meat consumption. The sites for such sacrifices are not managed well and the best example of this can be sighted on the ninth day of Dashain around Hanuman Dhoka Premise after the performance of Kal ratri at midnight on  eighth day of Dashain. 

Well now moving on to the day to day life the growing popularity open stall food where items like drumstick, mo:mo, sausage etc are easily available at lower price.It is obvious that more people are inclined towards consumption of such open stall meat items. Imagine a person in front of Kathmandu Mall having sticks of sausages and think about the hygiene. Is it an issue beyond the coverage of this Act? I do not know but I definitely feel the need for some control or management mechanism to look after this. More than that people themselves are not conscious about their health so what more is there to expect from government!! Correct me if I am wrong.