Cheryl the Pig Lady is here: Mobile slaughter might be on the way

Just now in the Senate Ag & Rural Economic Development Committee, Cheryl the Pig Lady and others were testifying on a bill from Sen. Ken Jacobsen to allow mobile slaughter units.

If you’ve gone to a farmers’ market in the Puget Sound area (and you like pork), you’ve probably seen Cheryl Oullette, who has pigs on five acres outside Tacoma. She’s been trying — with Jacobsen — to create a mobile slaughter unit program. Currently, even small farmers have to send their animals to a USDA-inspected facility, which they say can be expensive and inconvenient. A mobile slaughter facility would allow small producers to have their animals slaughtered locally — and sold locally.

Here’s more on the issue.

Sen. Brian Hatfield, the Democratic chair of the committee, just said that, to him, the bill gets to the heart of rural economic development. But, he said, he wasn’t sure it would be as exciting to the press as some of Jacobsen’s other bills.

Now they’re talking about creating a “Washington certified grass-fed beef cattle” designation.

Tags: cheryl the Pig Lady, Jacobsen, mobile slaughter