Notice on Drinking Facilities at Slaughterhouses by MHLW

Currently, there are few drinking facilities at slaughterhouses in Japan. Cows and pigs can’t drink water on their last day*1. Motivated by the question asked by Mr. Katsuya Ogawa of the Democratic Party, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare issued a notice about “Placement of drinking facilities for animals at slaughterhouses newly built or renovated” to all prefectures and cities with public health centers.

This notice prompts drinking facilities at slaughterhouses referring to the animal welfare standard of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE.)

Notice No. 0308 Article 8.

March 8, 2017

To: Directors of Responsible Public Health Division (Bureau) in all prefectures and cities with public health centers

From: Department of Food Safety,
Pharmaceutical and Food Safety Bureau,
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare
(Seal omitted)

Placement of drinking facilities for animals at slaughterhouses newly built or renovated

About the subject, it is desired to place drinking facilities according to guideline No. 97 on slaughterhouses and facilities, dated on June 23rd 1994, as well as welfare standard of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), which states drinking water should always be available to animals at slaughterhouses.

On the other hand, only 49.6% of cow slaughterhouses and 13.6% of pig slaughterhouses have drinking water in place(1). It is acknowledged that placement of drinking facilities has not been progressed.
Therefore, we request all related parties continue to be instructed to take the placement of drinking facilities into consideration in accordance with the guideline.

(1)Livestock Drinking Water Supply Facilities in the Holding Area for Abattoirs in Japan, Hisashi Okuno, Journal of the Japan Veterinary Medical Association 66 875-880

This notice was issued as a result of the questions about welfare of agriculture business, which were submitted to the House of Councilors by Katsuya Ogawa from the Democratic Party on February 27th 2017.
Mr. Ogawa asked 6 questions, and one of them was about drinking situations at slaughterhouses.
The guideline on slaughterhouses and the facilities issued by the Ministry of Health and Welfare to prefectures in 1994, stipulates that it is required to set drinking facilities for animals when new slaughterhouses or renovations of old houses take place. Also, the guidelines on handling and processing animals at meat process facilities set by Japan Meat Technology Institute and the Terrestrial Animal Health Code, chapter 7.5 by World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), state drinking water facilities are needed at slaughterhouses.

However, some surveys show that 50.4% of cow slaughterhouses and 86.4% of pig slaughterhouses do not have clean water for animals to drink at the facilities. Does the government have any plan to complete placement of drinking facilities at slaughterhouses? If so, by when will the government achieve this goal?

The answer released on March 3rd 2017 in response to Mr. Ogawa’s question was as follows:

Slaughterhouses are regulated in accordance with the Slaughterhouse Act (Act No. 114 of 1953) in light of public health, and their facilities are regulated by Article 1 and 2 in Order For Enforcement of the Slaughterhouse Act.
The guideline on slaughterhouses and the facilities you referred to only applies to new facilities and occurrence of renovations for old facilities to be desirable to place drinking facilities. The placement of drinking facilities is not included in the facility standard for animal slaughterhouses in the said order. Therefore, the government does not have any plan to proceed with placement of drinking facilities at slaughterhouses. With that said, we will continue to encourage prefectures to be in line with the guidelines when new facilities are built or renovations take place.

The Animal Rights Center has been requesting the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare to improve the drinking situations at slaughterhouses, but they’ve avoided to be involved in welfare issues for livestock animals.
This is a big step for the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare to issue such a notice about welfare on livestock animals resulted by Mr. Ogawa’s question.

*1 http://www.hopeforanimals.org/animals/slaughter/00/id=475