another butcher hits the dust

[bckev]

Thanks to the new government regulations for butchering meat another butcher has hit the dust. Willowbrook meats in Oliver is in the process of shutting down. Leaves with very few butchers in this area. I have heard similar stories from all over, don't know what this means for the 20 thousand new hunters they want to recruit. Typical of government, one side is recruiting and the other side is making it impossible for them to do what they are being recruited for.

[Radar]

What are the "new" government regulations?

[srupp]

bckev..it truly is happening everywhere..here in the pond...AKA Williams Lake we have 3 butchers so thats why years ago I took a college butchering course in Kelowna..and more recently took a sausage making course from a retiring full time sausage maker/butcher..


By doing my own game I am assured of the quality no one elses game gets "ACCIDENTLY " mixed with mine and I can choose what I want as I go...I like making "special " roasts so I do..a butcher would charge a fortune to do it the way I like my game done..

I highly suggest at least learning and knowing how to do ones own butchering...agrreed the sausage making is much more time consuming and $$$$$ getting the equipment....last year I had 6 individuals come by for "lessons" one guy from work DOUBLED his useable meat by just learning some basics from how he had done his game for years..

Steven

[bckev]

I cut most of my own meat as well. I used to farm and sell organic meat but now having to take it to a slaughter house (of which there are none close by) I can't make any money off it any more so have shut down that part of the operation. I still grow for myself but no one else. For those that don't know the government has put in new regulations around inspection of animals to be slaughtered, which small abatoirs can't afford to do. Small butchers that survived by providing local butchering, half a cow half a pig kind of idea, can no longer do that. So they have to buy the same stuff that the large chains buy and of course can't compete with them. These places can't survive on hunting season alone, so it has a huge impact on hunters. The government is out to put small farmers out of business, even though all of the problems (of which there are few) have come from the large outfits. Hunters get hurt because they will have no where to take there game. Very few hunters I know are interested in cutting their own game.

[srupp]

glad ya had such a gREAT hunt in our neck of the woods....

[bckev]

Thanks
It was great, was hunting with a buddy who lived up there a long time ago, so had lots to learn. Excellent butcher up there at sunrise ranch.

[dawn2dusk]

what butchers are left in Oliver/Osoyoos area? I know someone posted in earlier thread about B&B meats (Bob Byers). IS he still operating this year? any others out there?

I am coming that was in a month and would like to have a name or two in the wallet in case i get in a jam.

[bckev]

I am not sure if the guy on black sage road is still going or not. The closest is grimms in Penticton and I don't know if they are doing game or not this year. I don't know of any others.

[The Hermit]

I like to cut my own and still do when I take an animal locally. When I am away on a hunt ya have to rely on getting yoiur game to a local butcher at least to hang it in a cooler! This year Rick's Meats in Cranbrook was the man! He was available 24/7 to hang it. We had a cow elk and two deer looked after at his shop. Pricey but invaluable!

[Sooke Hunter]

Are there any meat processing facilities in the Princeton area?

[Allen50]

these butchers that are shuting down, do they kill as well, because if they only cut , the gov thing should not bother them, its only the kill they want to track, fresh beef, pork, and sheep, etc, there tracking and testing the blood, linfknods, etc, from fresh kill, looking for mad cow stuff, this is why they want them all killed at a gov,insp. plants, you can still raise your owne animals, but need to have them killed in gov. plant and pay the high cost of killing, then you can take it to your butcher and have it cut up, so game does not fall under this as of yet, when your game is cut, the butcher can not mix your game trim crap with beef or pig trim crap, must be put in its owne bin to be gotten rid of, but butcher that kill will close as they have to come up to gov insp, standerdes, or close the kill floor. hope that helps you a bit, as there is so much more to this gov, crap,,

[huntwriter]

The new government regulations border on stupidity, but in the coming months it will get worse as there is more bureaucratic nonsense coming down the pipe.

On our meat processing plant we hardly can keep up with the speed new and utterly useless regulation is handed down. This BS will destroy the family owned meat industry if permitted to continue. What puzzles me in all of this is that the meat industry does not stand up and say enough is enough.

[bckev]

As willowbrook meats told me all they can get to cut up now is the same crap that the large chains get. They can't compete and they are no longer offering what they want to,which is quality locally grown meat. A lot of people that grow animals don't want to do their own slaughtering, and there are not enough to keep a butcher going. The new standards will kill any local meat industry. The sad part is there is no good science behind it. All of the diseased animals have come from the big guys. I tried talking to people in Victoria but they weren't interested. They couldn't figure out how this would hurt hunters or why butchers would have to close down. Hopefully others will get on the bandwagon and raise a stink a make the regulators take a look at what they are doing and produce the evidence behind their decision making.