No licensed butchers in Hanover

Western Bureau:

Despite animals being slaughtered and meat being sold at various locations across the parish, there are no licensed butchers operating in Hanover.

David Gardner, the Hanover Municipal Corporation’s (HMC) chief executive officer, revealed yesterday that although all butcher’s licences in the western parish expired in March, no applications for butcher’s licences are being processed for the month of May.

“How is it that we have no application for butcher’s licence and you are inspecting so much meat?” a seemingly perplexed Mayor Sheridan Samuels asked Patricia Hall Patterson, the chief public health inspector in the parish.

“It means we have no licensed butchers, so there should be no slaughtering of animals,” added Samuels.

In responding to the mayor’s concern, Hall Patterson told the HMC monthly meeting that there were approximately 17 registered butchers in the parish and they were the butchers doing the inspection of meats. She also pointed out that there were some applications for butcher’s licences at the Public Health Department that were being processed and should be sent the HMC in short order.

NOT SATISFIED

The mayor stated that he was not satisfied that enough was being done to see that all persons who need to get a licence from the HMC are getting them. He requested and got the support of his fellow councillors to put a policy in place for the enforcement team at the corporation to take action to ensure compliance.

“The enforcement team needs to ensure that all persons butchering have a licence. Serious enforcement is necessary, and not only for butchers, but for hairdressers, barbers, places of amusement, and all other areas for which a licence is required,” said Samuels.

There was general agreement by the councillors that applications for licences would be given greater attention by the corporation in addition to carrying out more inspections of businesses that need a licence to operate.