Home kill is the slaughtering and butchering of your own animal, either by yourself or by a listed home kill and recreational catch service provider, for your own use and consumption. Home kill cannot be traded. Those who consume home kill or recreational catch product do so at their own risk. As home kill and recreational catch meat has not been subject to any hygiene or processing standards or control, or any assessment (e.g. ante- or post-mortem inspection), no assurances can be given on its fitness for consumption.

Can you feed home kill meat to paying guests?

Those who supply a meal as part of a tourist package including farm-stays, hunting lodges, or tourist barbecues, cannot use home kill product as part of the food provided to their customers.

Paying guests also include those who pay board, fees or other forms of payment as part of an accommodation package. Institutions such as boarding schools, universities, hospitals and prisons cannot serve home kill and must provide inspected meat from a regulated source.

Can you supply home kill meat as a prize (e.g. in a raffle)?

Home kill product is for the use or consumption of the animal owner including his or her family or household and must not be traded (includes barter, supply as part of a service, public prize or reward etc).

What is allowed for home kill?

The requirements for home kill activity are set out in Section 67 of the Animal Products Act:

• Those who can home kill are animal owners who are actively engaged in the day-to-day maintenance of the animal, or animals of the same kind, for a period of at least 28 days.
• Such owners may kill and process the animal themselves on their own property (includes property leased, or where there is other legal right to occupy or use the property), or they may have the animal killed or processed by a listed home kill or recreational catch service provider on the service provider's premises or place or the animal owner's own property.
• Home kill product is for the use or consumption of the animal owner including his or her family¹ or household² and must not be traded³ (includes barter, supply as part of a service, public prize or reward etc).

A farmer may supply home kill product to an employee of the farmer who is employed in an ongoing manner in the farmer's daily farming operations, for the use or consumption of that employee (including his or her family or household).

The parts of the home kill animal that are not for human or animal consumption (such as the hide, skin, horns, antlers) may be traded and waste material may be sold to a render.

The Animal Products Act also allows animals to be killed for humane reasons at a location other than the animal owner's own property or a listed service provider's premises or place, or by a person other than the owner or a listed service provider.

^{1. A family is anyone who can claim direct family lineage e.g. children, parents, grandparents. It is not intended to include extended family living elsewhere.}

^{2. A household is defined as the occupants of a house or similar, residential unit, but does not include an institution.}

^{3. Section 4 of the Animal Products Act defines trade.}

Disclaimer: This information is not a legal interpretation of the Animal Products Act or the Animal Products (Ancillary and Transitional Provisions) Act and is intended only as a guide.

Last updated: 24 Feb 2021