Mobile slaughter operations: sheep and goats.

The California Meat and Poultry Supplemental Inspection Act authorizes the Secretary of Food and Agriculture to adopt, by regulation, standards and requirements relating to inspection, sanitation, facilities, equipment, reinspection, preparation, processing, buying, selling, and transporting, among other acts, for carrying out the purposes of the act. The act requires each person to be licensed before operating a meat processing establishment or a custom livestock slaughterhouse. The act does not apply in specified circumstances, including to a mobile slaughter operator who provides services to an owner of cattle, subject to specified conditions, including the condition that the person who raised the cattle and the mobile slaughter operator maintain records, as provided. A violation of the act is a misdemeanor. This bill would exempt from the licensing requirements of the act a mobile slaughter operator that provides services to an owner of sheep or goats under certain specified conditions, including, among others, that the slaughter occurs on the premises of a person who raised the sheep or goats and who is not the owner of the sheep or goats, the person who raised the sheep or goats has registered with the Department of Food and Agriculture, the meat is not for sale, and no more than 25 head of sheep or goats combined are slaughtered in a calendar month on a single premises. The bill would require a mobile slaughter operator performing these services to register with the department as an unlicensed mobile slaughterer, as prescribed, and would limit the registration fee to the department's regulatory costs, but in no event more than $100 per year. The bill would require unlicensed slaughterers of sheep and goats pursuant to the exemption to maintain records, as prescribed, of all sheep and goats that they slaughter and to exhibit the record book on demand of any inspector or peace officer. By expanding the scope and number of possible crimes under the act to certain unlicensed slaughterers of sheep and goats that fail to comply with the act's provisions, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.