Marin is renowned for its environmentally conscious, largely organic agriculture–but should the county allow the animals raised on its pastures to be slaughtered within its borders?
That was the question the Planning Commission faced during a workshop on Monday that considered a proposed reversal of the current ban on commercial animal slaughter.
The discussion drew three hours of public comment: about a half-dozen ranchers and agricultural advocates threw their weight behind the proposal, while about three-dozen opponents pled with the commission to continue the prohibition. That group, including animal rights activists and a number of volunteers from a nonprofit called Save a Bunny, were joined by homeowners who enumerated concerns ranging from the environmental hazards of animal waste to the cruelty of animal slaughter to fears of diminished property values.
The proposed changes to county development code, which would not affect the coastal zone, are among a wide array of code amendments under consideration, along with new rules for community gardens, junior accessory dwelling units, camping and more. Monday’s workshop was the second of three dedicated to discussing the changes—an effort intended to allow the commission to provide feedback to the Community Development Agency before it submits a formal proposal for a vote by the commission, likely sometime early next year.
The final workshop, covering other issues, will be held on Dec. 12.
Currently the slaughter of animals is only allowed for personal consumption in Marin. Commercial ranchers and farmers who raise animals for meat must either truck them to a facility owned by Marin Sun Farms in Petaluma, which does not process chickens, or much further afield, to places like the Central Valley.
Allowing slaughterhouses in Marin would help producers “start small and scale up to meet market demand,” a county staff report says, as it can be time-consuming and expensive for smaller ranchers to reach existing facilities.
The county is primarily considering allowing slaughter in land zoned solely for agriculture. But the commission debated whether to also allow it in mixed agricultural and residential zoning districts, which are prevalent in Nicasio.
The staff report considers three kinds of slaughterhouses: full-scale slaughter houses; smaller facilities under 5,000 square feet that would only harvest animals raised on the same property, with caps on the number of animals annually harvested; and mobile slaughterhouses known as abattoirs, which would be limited to three days a month on a property. The county is presuming that mobile facilities would primarily be used for poultry, though they could be used for cattle.
Vince Trotter, the agriculture ombudsman with the University of California, Davis Cooperative Extension, said small producers are often “at the mercy of a facility’s schedules,” which favor larger operations. An abattoir in particular, he said, “allows the rancher to… never submit the animal to the stress” of being trucked for many hours to a slaughterhouse.
Kitty Dolcini, a fifth-generation rancher who sells pastured chicken eggs at the Point Reyes Farmers Market and elsewhere, said she would like to be able to harvest and sell her older chickens—which she currently uses to make soup for herself, since the meat is tougher—once they stop laying eggs. “I would like to process the birds in a humane way” and “get another value-added product,” she said. “It’s going to help me make a living. I don’t have another job.” (Ms. Dolcini added, “I have come to terms with the fact that I can’t be a community service for old hens.”)
But the prospect of slaughterhouses in Marin proved distressing to many, including some Nicasio residents and the town’s landowners association. Some argued that animal agriculture is inherently destructive to the environment and a primary driver of climate change; others stressed the cruelty of the practice. Some wondered how exactly the blood, bones, wastewater and offal would be safely disposed of, often believing it was inevitable that some byproducts would make their way into Marin waters. Still, others worried about the impact on neighbors and property values.
“We need to be shrinking this industry, not expanding it,” said Lisa Zorn, a board member of the Mill Valley-based Save a Bunny, a rabbit rescue nonprofit. She was among a number of speakers who called for the county to shift to a plant-based agricultural economy.
A man from San Geronimo teared up during his comments, saying that “we shouldn’t be normalizing something that’s an environmental degradation” and a harm to animals.
Marcy Schaaf, founder and executive director of Save a Bunny, brought a recently rescued rabbit to the podium to bring the issue “out of your mind and into your heart.” She described the mutilated state in which the rabbit was found. “This is an animal who has never been treated kindly by humans. This is who we’re talking about being slaughtered,” she said. Her group wants at least a prohibition on commercial rabbit slaughter.
But agriculture advocates argued that Marin is better suited to animal agriculture than row crops. “In a grass-based agricultural system, these animals are going to go somewhere,” said Stacy Carlsen, the county agricultural commissioner.
Still others questioned how oversight would operate. If the county were to allow slaughterhouses, it would not inspect the facilities; as in other counties, that duty would fall to the California Department of Food and Agriculture. The department is supposed to conduct inspections of small brick-and-mortar facilities four times a year.
The federal government typically functions as a second layer of oversight, but the United States Department of Agriculture exempts facilities that slaughter fewer than 20,000 poultry animals a year from mandatory federal inspections. An inspector is required for U.S.D.A.-certified abattoirs at all times during slaughter.
As for the waste, county planner Jeremy Tejirian said the Regional Water Quality Control Board oversees waste disposal and discharge issues.
But some were not comfortable with the lack of county oversight. “We don’t have confidence that state and federal officials will pay attention” to such a small area, said Steve Lewis, president of the Nicasio Land Owners Association. He said that while agriculture is the “heartbeat of our community,” allowing mobile facilities was “completely inappropriate and unacceptable,” particularly for smaller agricultural zoning districts, and could pose “significant health and safety risks.”
By the close of the workshop, commissioners generally seemed uncomfortable with the idea of full-scale slaughterhouses but still amenable to allowing the practice in the smaller facilities and mobile units.
Wade Holland, the commissioner representing West Marin, advocated for allowing them in every agricultural district and worried about the impact of requiring expensive use permits for the practice.
Yet other commissioners wanted to require permits for small brick-and-mortar facilities and seemed hesitant to legalize any slaughterhouses in smaller agriculture zoning districts, since many of those areas look like residential subdivisions, not large agricultural tracts. “I think, at least for now, [any facilities] should be in the big agricultural lands,” said Commissioner Don Dickerson.