Rules can be stretched

Ken Johnston
Editor

It seems it all boils down to rules and regulations.
The government says farmers can’t have Sunrise Meats or anyone else process their meat off the farm without the meat being inspected.
The farmers say they are happy with the set up at Sunrise and question why wild game can be processed there but not their well fed and cared for animals.
To me this seems a little like the old rules game that goes on throughout life. Speed limits are put in place but yet most people travel 5-10 km/hr over the limit.
Then there are the gambling laws. People are not supposed to gamble on even the simplest things, like a game of pool (i.e. playing for table or money). But we all know it goes on all the time.
Wild animals are not inspected and do not get regular vaccinations like farmed beef. But the rules say they can be processed at places like Sunrise Meats.
The practise in question has been going on for some time and no one has gotten sick. If anything the consensus is the Sunrise has a much safer place for farmers to get their meat from hoof to their freezer than they would have on their farm.
Yes there are rules in place, but there is also a thing called discretion. Officials can look at the circumstances and decide that rules can be stretched a bit, at least until an abattoir can be put in place.
If officials policed every rule to the max we would all have speeding tickets out the wazoo, no one would have much fun having a friendly wager and life would be so restrictive that we would soon be unable to do anything without worrying.
–Until then, Ken