Volume 13: Industry Processes and Controls
5. Knackers, hunt kennels and maggot bait farms
Processes involved in knackering in 1986
Collection of animals and carcasses
Slaughtering of animals
Handling of carcasses
Destination of products
General standard of knacker's yards
Legislation applying to knacker's yards and other premises

5.11 The Inquiry has relied on the Health and Safety Executive's 'Guidance for the Knackering (Including Hunt Kennels and Maggot Farms) and Rendering Industries' for a general description of knackers' practices. ¹

Collection of animals and carcasses

5.12 A knacker would go onto the farm, to:

• put down an injured or diseased animal and remove its carcass; or
• collect the carcass of an animal that had already died; or
• transport an animal to his premises before putting it down.

5.13 Mr Peter Hewson, a MAFF Meat Hygiene Adviser, said in oral evidence that 'knacker's yards paid for animals that died on the farm; hunt kennels removed a number of dead animals free of charge'. ²

Slaughtering of animals

5.14 Any animal slaughtered in a knacker's yard had to be stunned and slaughtered in the same way as it would have been in a slaughterhouse. ³ See Chapter 2 for details.

Handling of carcasses

5.15 Once a carcass was in the knacker's yard, the hide was removed for sale. The skull was split with a large cleaver, and the brain removed with a hook, knife or hand. The carcass was then winched into a hanging position, from where the internal organs could be removed. Next, the spine was split with a cleaver (it seems likely that in some cases a saw might have been used, as in slaughterhouses, but no evidence of this was received). The meat and offal were cut from the carcass in manageable portions using sharp knives, and either cooked, dried and sold as pet food, or sold or given to renderers with the other unwanted parts of the carcass. Methods used to cook the meat included pressure cooking and open cooking. This cooking was significant as it fulfilled knackers' obligations to sterilise meat under the Meat (Sterilisation and Staining) Regulations 1982.

Destination of products

5.16 Knackers sold the hides or skins to tanneries for leather. The remaining tissue, including bone, fats and muscle, was reprocessed as sterilised animal feed or pet food, or sold to renderers. Hunt kennels and maggot bait farms used as much of the carcass as possible to feed their hounds or to breed maggots. The remaining parts of the carcasses were collected by renderers or disposed of as waste. Renderers which collected raw material from knackers, hunt kennels or maggot bait farms usually specialised in rendering low-grade material for use in animal feed. For more detail, see Chapter 6.

5.17 Most knackers sold meat and offal for pet food. ⁴ However, their share of the total pet food market was not significant. Members of the Pet Food Manufacturers' Association did not use knacker meat. In 1991, Mr Alan Lawrence of MAFF's Animal Health Division wrote:

Their share of the pet food market overall is minimal. The [Pet Food Manufacturers' Association] already claim to have about 98% of the market. If each knacker sold on average half a tonne (which is possibly on the high side) a week their contribution to the total volume of 1.4 million tonnes of pet food sold annually would be about 2,600 tonnes or just under 0.2%. ⁵

5.18 The Inquiry is not aware of how much material was sold by knackers to pet food manufacturers. However, both Pedigree Masterfoods and Spillers Petfoods, two of the largest pet food manufacturers in the country, said in submissions to the Inquiry that they only used raw materials derived from carcasses passed as fit for human consumption, and therefore did not source such material from knackers. Pedigree Masterfoods said that it had maintained this policy since the 1970s, while Spillers Petfoods had never purchased raw materials from knackers. ⁶

5.19 A 1990 SVS survey of knacker's yards indicated that:

. . . the majority . . . sell sterilised unfit meat for this purpose (which may contain other offals e.g. liver), through a range of outlets, including direct sale, pet shops and to pet food manufacturers. ⁷

5.20 The same survey indicated that no hunt kennels were found to be selling sterilised unfit meat as pet food.

General standard of knacker's yards

5.21 In 1991, a MAFF officer reported of knacker's yards that:

. . . the general standard is very low with premises being of minimal construction, very old and in a poor state of repair with overall hygiene standards described as poor. A few come into the moderate category. Generally, there is no attempt to separate dirty from clean areas, facilities for sterilisation of equipment are usually non-existent and wash-hand basins for use of staff are more often absent than present. ⁸

Legislation applying to knacker's yards and other premises

5.22 The Slaughterhouse Act required knacker's yards to be licensed. However, the conditions attaching to the licence were minimal. ⁹ Slaughtering of animals in a knacker's yard was also regulated as in a slaughterhouse.

5.23 The Meat (Sterilisation and Staining) Regulations 1982 regulated 'knacker meat' (that is, meat and offal from an animal slaughtered in, or from a carcass brought into, a knacker's yard). ¹⁰ Under the Regulations, knacker meat had to be handled in the same way as unfit meat in a slaughterhouse: all meat and offal had to be sterilised or stained, unless it was to be sent to an excepted premises under authority of a local authority movement order. Treating meat by boiling it or by steaming it under pressure until every piece was cooked throughout constituted sterilisation under the Regulations.

5.24 Knacker's yards were inspected annually by MAFF officials for compliance with the 1982 Regulations. ¹¹ In 1991, general compliance by knacker's yards with these Regulations was not considered satisfactory. ¹²

5.25 The Meat (Sterilisation and Staining) Regulations 1982 also required meat and most offal produced in premises other than a slaughterhouse or knacker's yard (such as most hunt kennels and maggot bait farms) to be sterilised before being removed from the premises, or stained and removed under a local authority movement order. ¹³ More detail about this legislation can be found in vol. 14: Responsibilities for Human and Animal Health.