Homekill laws apply equally
for human or dog food use

The ability of farmers to kill and consume their own stock is considered part of the social fabric of rural New Zealand. New Zealanders also hold a long tradition of game hunting and fishing. The provision of homekill slaughter and associated processing services to cater for these pastimes are significant rural activities.

The Animal Products Act distinguishes between two types of animal products.

1. Regulated animal products are subject to the risk management system under the Animal Products Act, e.g. risk management programmes and regulated control schemes. These cover hygiene and processing standards or controls and assessment, e.g. ante-mortem or post-mortem inspection, and have been designed to ensure that the resulting products are fit for human or animal consumption. Regulated animal products can be traded.

2. Homekill and recreational catch products are not subject to the Animal Products Act risk management system. Therefore, no assurances can be given on the fitness of the resulting product, and those who use or consume homekill or recreational catch products do so at their own risk. Homekill and recreational catch products that are used for human or animal consumption cannot be traded.

The treatment of homekill and unregulated animal product has proven to be a contentious issue over the years. The policy in the Animal Products Act balances two views:

1. The desire of many New Zealanders to have continued access to homekill and recreational catch and the associated service-providing businesses; and

2. Domestic and international consumer concerns on the safety and wholesomeness of animal products that are traded and consumed.

For these reasons, the Animal Products Act has very strict rules governing the use and consumption of homekill and recreational catch product.

The aim is to allow for New Zealand's genuine homekill and recreational hunting and fishing to continue, while protecting the integrity of the regulated meat system and its assurances.

The Animal Products Act establishes a boundary to prevent homekill and recreational catch from entering the regulated system, being traded and, especially, exported.

The Animal Products Act prohibits trade in homekill or recreational catch product for human or animal consumption. This includes use by businesses such as public hotels, restaurants, farm-stays, tourist lodges, retail premises, or institutions.

In no instance can any person, including the animal owner, trade or attempt to trade any homekill or recreational catch for human or animal consumption. Those parts of homekill and recreational catch that are not for human or animal consumption, such as hides and skins, may be traded. The maximum penalty for trading in homekill or recreational catch that is for human or animal consumption is $75,000 for an individual and $300,000 for a body corporate.

NB. In all the above regulations the ban on trade and the fine for trading are the same whether meat is sold for human or dog consumption!

Petfood
It is illegal for any person or business to trade, or attempt to trade, any homekill or recreational catch animal material or product as petfood or for processing into feeds to be consumed by other animals.

Operators who are licensed under the Meat Act regime to produce petfood have until 1 November 2002 to either have a registered risk management programme in place, or comply with the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Act 1997, or both, as appropriate to the level of processing.

Rendering
It is illegal to trade, or attempt to trade, any homekill or recreational catch animal material for human or animal consumption. However, homekill and recreational catch `left-over' material processed by a licenced operator - such as offal and fat that is not being returned to the animal owner - may be disposed of, without payment, to a rendering operation.

1. Section 4 of the Animal Products Act defines trade as: selling for human or animal consumption or use; and includes:

(a) Selling for resale (including as a constituent part of another article) for human or animal consumption or use;

(b) Offering or attempting to sell, or receiving for sale, or having in possession or exposing for sale, or sending or delivering for sale, or causing or permitting to be sold, offered, or exposed for sale;

(c) Barter;

(d) Supplying an article under a contract, together with other goods or services or both, in consideration of an inclusive charge for the article and the other goods or services;

(c) Supplying an article where there is a statutory responsibility to supply;

(f) Offering as a public prize or reward, or giving away for the purpose of advertisement or in the furtherance of any trade or business;

(g) Every other method of disposition for valuable consideration.

Donations and gifts
It is recognised that sharing of animal material for consumption is part of normal social life, especially in rural areas. However, as no assurances can be given on the fitness of homekill and recreational catch products, there is a risk in such sharing arrangements. The Animal Products Act specifically prohibits the donation of homekill or recreational catch product for use as a prize in a raffle; for the purposes of advertising; and for the purposes of sale.

Institutions
Many institutions, such as hospitals, prisons, research stations, agricultural training centres, boarding schools and residential hostels have farms associated with them. The Animal Products Act specifically prohibits homekill or recreational catch product being supplied to employees, residents, patients, students etc, under statutory arrangement, or under an inclusive charge for another product or service. This means that homekill product cannot be supplied to people who are paying board, fees, or other forms of payment, nor by Crown establishments such as prisons or hospitals.

Institutions are required to arrange for their animals to be processed in the regulated system, e.g. by an abattoir, or an operator with a risk management programme, and have the resultant product returned to them for supply to residents, staff etc. If an institution has its own slaughtering facilities it wishes to use, the slaughtering facilities must be subject to a risk management programme. The resulting product

would then be regulated product and could be supplied to residents, staff, etc.

Ethnic and religious groups
Various ethnic and religious groups have, in the past, sought to have their particular slaughter, dressing or other processing requirements accommodated within New Zealand's legislative framework.

There is no provision in the Animal Products Act that allows departures from the basic principle that only regulated product can be traded. Therefore, product that meets the particular requirements of an ethnic or religious group cannot be sourced from outside the regulated system. Individual animal owners belonging to a particular group may consume or feed to their dogs or cats their own homekill animal, but cannot supply or distribute this product to the wider group.

Nor can churches, mosques, and other religious and ethnic group gatherings or gathering places be used as a distribution point for homekill or recreational catch. The Animal Products Act provides for flexibility of slaughter and processing activities provided they meet the standards for these activities. Issues of animal welfare associated with the slaughter and killing of animals for human or animal consumption are now covered by the Animal Welfare Act 1999. All persons slaughtering or killing animals for human or animal consumption must comply with requirements.

* Animal owners do not have to list as homekill or recreational catch service providers if they only slaughter and/or butcher their own animals for their own use or consumption, or that of their family or household, and do not provide, for reward, a service to other animal owners.

* Only animal owners who are actively engaged in the day-to-day maintenance of an animal may engage a listed service provider to kill that animal. The mere purchase of an animal that has been managed by someone else does not make a person eligible to engage or use the services of a homekill and recreational catch service provider.

MAF expects a person actively involved in the day-to-day maintenance of an animal to be someone who has appropriate facilities to maintain the health and welfare of the animal(s), and has been in possession of the animal(s) for at least 28 days.

The maximum penalty for presenting an animal to a homekill and recreational catch service provider, when not an owner of that animal who has been actively involved in the day-to-day maintenance of the animal, is $75,000 for an individual, and $300,000 for a body corporate.

It is illegal for an animal owner to engage a person to provide homekill services for reward when that person is not a listed homekill and recreational catch service provider. The maximum fine for knowingly using a non-listed service provider is $75,000 for an individual or $300,000 for a body corporate.

Use and consumption of homekill
Homekill product is for the personal consumption or use of the animal owner, or his/her family or household. The inclusion of `use' as well as `consumption' is to allow animal owners to feed homekill product to their own animals, e.g. as dog food. The only exception is that farmers may supply homekill product to employees resident on the farm for their own use or consumption

This is a much abridged version of the current New Zealand laws regulating homekill meat and presents only those laws that apply equally to meat for dog (or cat) or human consumption.

Basically ... if you kill and dress your own farm animals you may use the meat to feed yourselves or your dogs but you may not trade or sell it to anyone else (not even to a neighbouring farmer and not even for the neighbouring farmer's dogs) and if you run a home business such as farmstay, you may not serve homekill meat to your clients. These rules do not apply if you employ a licenced operator to process the animal or if you are licenced and inspected under the Animal Products Act. Homekill applies equally to any hunting or fishing kill - venison, rabbit, pork, game birds or fish - and it can be consumed by the family or dogs of the person who caught it, but can in no way be sold or traded or used in a business such as hotel, restaurant or farmstay, to feed clients.