People face health risks as butchers slaughter animals in residential areas

Rawalpindi
Helpless residents are continuously facing health risks and bad smell round the clock as more than 100 illegal private slaughterhouses are operating in city and cantonment board localities where animals are slaughtered day and night.
According to a survey conducted by ‘The News’, a large number of sick animals are slaughtered at illegal slaughterhouses operating at Pirwadhai, Girja, Saidpur, Sir Syed Chowk, Jamia Masjid Road, Imam Bara Chowk, Arya Mohallah, Dhoke Khabba, Adiala Road, Naseerabad, Misrial, Chakra, Rawat, Jhangi Syedan, Lalkurti, Dhoke Syedan, Ganjmandi, Gulistan Colony and several other localities in city and cantonment.
Butchers dispose of animal waste in the thickly-populated areas causing problems to the residents, as the smell of the rotten meat and entrails makes them vomit.
The residents said that though the city district government was developing an alternative slaughterhouse in Ratta Amral near Railway Road, the authorities must start crackdown on these illegal slaughterhouses otherwise citizens, particularly children, settled in affected localities would face dangerous diseases.
Ratta Amral Slaughterhouse In-Charge Dr. Muhammad Kashif told ‘The News’ that more than 100 private slaughterhouses are running in city and cantonment localities where butchers are slaughtering sick animals. “We are taking action against butchers running private slaughterhouses in city and cantonment localities.”
He said that butchers do not bring sick animals at our slaughterhouse because we do not allow slaughtering of such animals.
The slaughterhouse at Sihala is operating under the administrative control of the DCO Rawalpindi, but butchers prefer to slaughter animals at their private slaughterhouses to save the transportation cost and the slaughterhouse fee.
Rawalpindi Butchers Welfare Association General Secretary Mumtaz Khan Qureshi, admitting the fact, said that butchers should go to government-run slaughterhouses for getting slaughtered their animals.
Talking to ‘The News,’ affected residents of different localities strongly protested against the slaughtering of animals in residential areas and urged the city district government to take strict action against it.
Zameer Ahmed Qureshi, a resident of Ganjmandi, said that they were facing bad smell and bad atmosphere for years as butchers are not only using this place for illegal slaughtering but boiling animal fats too. “We could not even breathe here due to bad smell,” he claimed.
Shahzad Ahmed, a resident of Adiala Road, said that butchers were openly slaughtering animals on roads at Khawaja Corporation Stop, but the authorities were seeing the whole drama with closed eyes. The city district government should take action against this illegal practice, he demanded.
People residing in the affected localities have complained of health-related problems due to consumption of substandard beef and mutton. It has been observed that most butchers hang meat uncovered outside their shops exposing it to flies and dust.