Can I sell a live animal off the farm and allow the customer to slaughter “their animal” on my farm?
No. If you provide a location, service or facility for the slaughter of animals by an individual, without first building an inspected slaughter facility, you are in violation of state and federal meat inspection laws. Individuals found in violation could be assessed a civil money penalty of up to $5,000 per violation or face criminal prosecution. Additionally, if for some reason a customer gets sick, you could be held liable. You are putting yourself and your farm at risk by allowing this to happen on your property. If your customer wants to have the animal slaughtered, they must take it to a custom slaughtering facility or an inspected slaughtering facility which conducts custom slaughtering activity where the animal will be slaughtered, processed to their specifications, and marked and labeled as “NOT FOR SALE”.
