What is homekill?

Homekill is the slaughtering and butchering of your farmed animals for your own use and consumption. This may be done by you, or by a listed service provider. It's illegal to sell or trade homekill meat.

Food safety risks with homekilled meat

Meat that's sold commercially (like in supermarkets) follows strict requirements to ensure it's safe to eat. Homekilled meat is not checked in the same way. This means it could be unsafe to eat. It is eaten at your own risk.

Like all meat, you need to handle, store, and cook it safely.

Safe food preparation, cooking, and storage at home

Preparing and storing food safely at home

How to handle raw meat safely and avoid cross-contamination

Bacteria and viruses in food

Who can slaughter animals for meat?

Homekill slaughtering can be done by either:

the animal owner on their own property
a listed homekill or recreational catch service provider that the owner hires.

You can only hire a service provider if you were involved in the day-to-day maintenance of the animal (or animals of the same kind) for at least 28 days right before its slaughter.

Choosing a homekill service provider

Who can eat homekilled meat?

Homekill can be eaten by:

the animal owner
the direct family or household of the animal owner
farmworkers employed in a farm's daily operations
the farmworkers' families and households.

It's illegal to trade or sell homekilled meat

You cannot:

serve homekill meat to paying customers (for example, to guests at bed and breakfasts or lodges)
trade or barter homekill meat
raffle or donate the meat for use as a prize or as a fundraiser.

Homekill meat cannot be used by schools, universities, hospitals, or prisons.

Donating homekill is acceptable through an agreed and well managed system with a recognised foodbank or charity organisation.

Illegal to "select and slaughter"

"Select and slaughter" is when you buy an animal from a farmer and then have it slaughtered for the meat. It's also illegal for the farmer to let you slaughter the animal on their property.

Trading hides, skins, horns, and other animal parts

You can only trade (sell) parts of your homekilled animal that are not for eating (by either people or animals). For example:

hides
skins
horns
antlers.

Waste material like animal fat and carcasses can be sold or given to a renderer.

Using a registered abattoir

You can send an animal to a registered abattoir for killing and processing. In this case, it is not homekill.

Harsh penalties for breaking the rules

The maximum fine is:

$75,000 for individuals
$300,000 for corporations.

Choosing a homekill service provider

When you select a service provider, make sure you get enough information about the quality of the service provided. This is because homekill service providers do not need to meet any requirements for:

the state of facilities where animals are processed (if any)
the use of hygiene techniques, cleaning, and sanitation
staff hygiene or the use of protective clothing
water quality
refrigeration
ante-mortem or post-mortem animal examinations.

Find a listed homekill or recreational catch service provider

Animal welfare requirements

If you kill the animal, you are responsible for ensuring that it does not suffer unreasonable or unnecessary pain or distress.

NAIT and animal tracing requirements

For cattle and deer, the person in charge of the animal at the time of its slaughter must:

be registered with the National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) scheme
record animal movements and deaths in the NAIT database.

Feeding offal from homekill to dogs

Treat offal from homekilled livestock before you feed it to dogs. You need to do this to stop the spread of hydatid parasites. Livestock includes sheep, pigs, and cattle. Also ensure that dogs can't reach or eat raw offal when you dispose of dead animals.