Meat consumers’ health risks ignored in Tangail town

Health of Tangail townspeople is under threat due to absence of slaughterhouse and screening of animals at kitchen markets of the town.

Without any effective mechanism of supervision by the municipality or the livestock department, meat traders are slaughtering animals at unhygienic places in front of or on roads near butchers’ shops all over the town.

After a slaughtering shed near Tangail stadium was abandoned following complaints by locals in 1988, Tangail municipality later on built a smaller shed at the town’s Park market for the purpose.

When they started developing it further in 2012, the work had to be suspended due to land dispute between them and the upazila land office.

Ever since, ignoring concerns for consumer health, the town’s meat traders have been slaughtering animals at any place they consider convenient for them.

According to rules, veterinary doctors from the livestock department and the municipality’s sanitary department are supposed to inspect an animal and issue health certification for the animal before it is slaughtered.

The livestock department said they did not have necessary personnel for the job, while the Tangail municipality authorities claimed that their inspectors screen animals everyday before slaughtering at the town markets. 

Khandakar Abdul Kader Sirajul, sanitary inspector of Tangail municipality, said they inspect animals every day at each market in the town to ensure that the meat traders do not slaughter sick animals.

But without proper tools, they conduct the inspections with the naked eye, the inspector added.

However, meat trader Gaznavi Miah at Battala market said he never saw any health inspector by the Louhajang river in Paradise Para area where he slaughters animals every day.

After slaughtering the animals there, he transports the meat on a rickshaw van to the market, he also said.

Khoka Miah, another meat trader at Park market, said the meat traders at the market slaughter animals on open spaces in front of their shops before selling the meat.

A while back, a municipality employee used to go to the market only to stamp ‘bull’, ‘cow’ or ‘goat (khashi)’ marks on the animals, he added.

College Para resident Mohammad Sumon said without any proper slaughterhouse or proper inspection of animals, consumers have no way of knowing what kind of meat they are buying or whether the meat is safe for consumption.  

While speaking with this correspondent at Park market, Hindu community member Krishna Roy said the butchers’ shops display both beef and mutton side by side.

He also said the authorities should ensure that cows and goats are slaughtered at separate places and beef and mutton are not kept together at a shop.

A team of local journalists during a recent visit to different kitchen markets in Tangail town witnessed indiscriminate slaughtering of animals in front of the butchers’ shops at the markets and on adjacent roads.

Contacted, Civil Surgeon in Tangail Dr Sharif Hossain said people can be infected with anthrax and many other diseases if hygiene is not maintained during slaughtering of animals or if it is done in the open. 

Dr Md Abu Sayeed, district livestock officer in Tangail, said as per rules, heath of animals has to be examined by a veterinary doctor before slaughtering.

Admitting that they have not been able to conduct the examinations due to shortage of necessary workforce, he said, a process was underway to approve a project for constructing a modern slaughterhouse in the town.   

Park Market Meat Traders Association General Secretary Shahjahan Miah said the municipality mayor and assistant commissioner (land) in Tangail recently visited different markets to find a suitable place for constructing a slaughtering shed. “We [meat traders] urged them to construct the shed as soon as possible.”

Jamilur Rahman Miron, mayor of Tangail municipality, said over the last one year, he has been in communication with the administration for allocation of a piece of land in the town where a slaughtering shed would be built.

“I hope the municipality residents will get an animal slaughtering shed soon,” he also said.