Mobile Abattoir For Remote Farmers

Farmers in British Columbia, in the Peace region, will be the first to test the 'gate to plate' licensed mobile livestock abattoir according to CanWest News Service.

The facility, which will make the task of finding a local abattoir in some parts of Canada less of a struggle for livestock farmers, is the brainchild of former Vancouver executive chef Lars Jorgensen.

He said the prototype had taken three years to create and fully license.

Jorgensen, Gate to Plate Food Services president, said he plans to have nine of the mobile abattoirs on the road by the end of this year.

He told CanWest News Service: "It's the same problem right across Canada. I have calls from Nova Scotia waiting for us to go out there because they only have one slaughterhouse in the whole province."

Jorgensen said with most slaughtering facilities located in major centres, it was difficult for farmers to get their livestock slaughtered. Long transport and animals being herded into slaughter houses only added to their stress and the mobile abattoir cut out much of that stress, making for more humane killing, Jorgensen added.

Jorgensen said he expected approval from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which will allow the mobile abattoirs to operate across Canada, in about four months.

"The difference is that there is a little bit of a different design in the unit itself, it has to meet a couple more regulations," he told CanWest News Service.

The mobile abattoir is licensed to kill beef, buffalo and lamb. Jorgensen said he is in the process of designing a similar product for poultry.

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