Abstract:
A regional abattoir system is comprised of a permanent animal containment enclosure provided in a geographic region containing a plurality of animal suppliers. The permanent abattoir containment enclosure is adapted to house a predetermined number of animals to accustomize the animals to non-stressful environment prior to being slaughtered. The containment enclosure has an internal isolated slaughter room which has a door opening for communication with an external mobile abattoir. The mobile abattoir has a receiving station where a slaughtered animal is transferred to an overhead conveyor and processed into a skinless carcass for inspection and identification stamping prior to being refrigerated. This regional abattoir system serves small animal suppliers in sectors of a predetermined region whereby the animals are not transported large distances thereby minimizing stress and bruising of the animals and thereby producing better quality meat.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
   The present invention relates to a regional abattoir system which is comprised of a permanent animal containment enclosure provided with an internal slaughter room which communicates with an external mobile abattoir. 
   BACKGROUND ART 
   In the processing of animals destined for human consumption and particularly animal producers usually need to transport their animals to a containment building where an auctioneer sells the animals to brokers and/or meat processors who then transport the animals to abattoirs. Thus, the animal producer and the brokers and/or processors need to load the animals in trucks and sometime transport then long distances. During transportation the animal is in a confined area and not fed nor provided water. The animals being in closed quarters often are in contact with one another and this bruises the skin of the animal often leaving blue marks on the carcass after the animal has been processed in a slaughter house. Also when the animals are delivered to the slaughter house they arrive stressed and are further subjected to a stressful environment and this has been known to affect the quality of the meat. 
   Another problem nowadays is that there are very large animal suppliers who have their own slaughter houses and who sell meat in very large quantities to meat distributors and large retailers. This makes it very difficult for the small animal producer to compete on the marketplace as there are too many intermediates between the small animal producer and the retailer and the result of this is that the small producers are not profitable operations and are often discouraged from continuing such business. Their products are often destined for small local retailers. 
   Another problem that exists with small suppliers is that when their cattle or animals are sent to auction they are usually placed in groups of animals with other producers and the carcass of his animals cannot be inspected by him nor is that carcass identified by the retailer to give credit to the supplier for the quality of his product. The traceability of the cut meat products derived from his carcasses do not identify the animal supplier but often the broker. The identity of the producer is not known to the retailer. 
   Reference is also made to U.S. Pat. No. 5,538,466 and Swedish Patent No. 448,144 which describe the construction of a mobile abattoir. However, those mobile abattoirs are slaughter houses and they are brought to an area where they are installed in a permanent manner and refrigerated trucks are used to transport processed carcasses directly from the mobile abattoir. 
   SUMMARY OF INVENTION 
   Is therefore a feature of the present invention to provide a regional abattoir system with a mobile abattoir unit and a method of use which substantially overcomes the above-mentioned disadvantages of the prior art. 
   Another feature of the present invention is to provide a regional abattoir which is comprised of a permanent animal containment enclosure wherein animals are accustomized and subjected to a non-stressful environment prior to being slaughtered and processed in an external mobile abattoir which can service a plurality of these containment enclosures. 
   Another feature of the present invention is to provide a regional abattoir system which services a plurality of animal suppliers in a given geographic location whereby the distance of transport of the animals is greatly reduced whereby not to subject the animal to an excessive stressful environment. 
   Another feature of the present invention is to provide a regional abattoir system which incorporates therein a slaughter room where the animal is anesthetized and then processed into an external mobile abattoir. 
   Another feature of the present invention is to provide a regional abattoir system as above-described and wherein the animal is slaughtered and processed in a mobile abattoir and refrigerated in an internal refrigerated room thereof and wherein the mobile abattoir is self sustaining. 
   Another feature of the present invention is to provide a method of producing quality meat for human consumption utilizing a permanent animal containment enclosure where the animals are accustomized and then anesthetized one at a time in a non-stressful environment and then transferred into the mobile abattoir for processing into a carcass for human consumption. 
   Another feature of the present invention is to provide a method of producing quality meat for human consumption wherein the animal producers are identified with their carcass and wherein the costs of transporting the animal to an auction site for the sale of the animals in groups to brokers, is eliminated. 
   Another feature of the present invention is to provide a method of producing quality meat for human consumption and wherein the animal carcass is provided with a code identifying its producer in association with a specific geographic location. 
   According to the above features, from a broad aspect, the present invention provides a regional abattoir system comprising two or more permanent animal containment enclosures, each enclosure being provided in a geographic region containing a plurality of animal suppliers. Each of the permanent animal containment enclosures is adapted to house a predetermined number of animals to accustomize the animals to a non-stressful environment prior to being slaughtered. The containment enclosure has an internal isolated slaughter room. The slaughter room has a door opening for communication with an external mobile abattoir. The mobile abattoir has a receiving station where a slaughtered animal is transferred to an overhead conveyor and processed into a skinless carcass which is inspected and identified with a code stamping prior to being transferred to a refrigerated environment in the mobile abattoir, and sanitary containment means for receiving blood from the animal isolated from the receiving station, the animal at the receiving station being skinned and de-limbed prior to transfer to a gut removal station for inspection by a veterinarian. 
   According to a further broad aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of producing quality meat for human consumption and wherein the meat is traceable to a regional supplier. The method comprises the steps of providing two or more permanent containment enclosures, each of the enclosures being in a sector of a geographic location to receive animals from a plurality of designated animal suppliers located in the sector of the geographic location. A mobile abattoir is adapted and travels to the permanent containment enclosure. A predetermined number of animals are accustomized within the permanent animal containment enclosure for a predetermined period of time to subject the animals to a non-stressful environment. The animals are anesthetized and slaughtered in an isolated area of the containment enclosure and then processed into a carcass suitable for human consumption in the mobile abattoir. The processing includes bleeding the animal and collecting the blood in a sanitary containment means of the mobile abattoir isolated from the receiving station, and transferring the carcasses to a refrigerated station of the mobile abattoir for the refrigeration. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
     A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: 
       FIG. 1  is a schematic top section view of the regional abattoir system of the present invention and comprised essentially of a permanent animal containment enclosure and an external mobile abattoir coupled thereto; 
       FIG. 2  is fragmented perspective view illustrating the construction of the mobile abattoir; 
       FIG. 3  is a plan view showing a plurality of permanent animal containment enclosures located in a predetermined geographic location which has been sectioned into supplier sectors; 
       FIG. 4  is a partially fragmented side section view illustrating the coupling between the slaughter room in the permanent animal containment enclosure and the receiving station of the external mobile abattoir; 
       FIG. 5  is a perspective view of the extendable boom; 
       FIG. 6A  is a transverse section view of the mobile abattoir; 
       FIG. 6B  is a top section view of the mobile abattoir; and 
       FIG. 7  is a perspective view showing a section of the corral area of the permanent animal containment enclosure. 
   

   DESCRIPTION 
   Referring now to the drawings and more particularly to  FIG. 1  there is shown generally at  10  the regional abattoir system of the present invention and comprising essentially a permanent animal containment enclosure  11  and an external mobile abattoir  12 . This regional abattoir system was conceived primarily to service a plurality of small animal suppliers located in geographic regions that are often far from large scale abattoirs or auction sites capable of bringing the animal products to market. 
   As shown in  FIG. 3  there is illustrated generally at  13  a predetermined geographic location and a location of animal suppliers  14  therein. This geographic location  13  is hereinshown as having been sectioned into supplier sectors  15 , four of them being shown in  FIG. 3 . A permanent animal containment enclosure  11  is constructed in these sectors  15  and usually in an area which is easily accessible to all of the animal suppliers  14  within the sectors. Accordingly, the travel time for the animal suppliers to bring their animals to be slaughtered is greatly reduced. As shown, there are four permanent animal containment enclosures  11  constructed in an associated one of the sectors and their location is identified herein by the operators  16 . The sectors are designated by a distance radius from the operators  16 . With this system the animal suppliers  14  are capable of transporting their animals or have their animals transported within a few hours of transport time whereby not to overly stress the animals. These animal suppliers may not have large quantities of animals and therefore the regional abattoir system is constructed to handle small numbers of animals such as twelve beef cattle, or fifteen deer or sixty lambs or sheep. It is also pointed out that the mobile abattoir  12  is displaceable between these permanent animal containment enclosures  11 . 
   Referring again to  FIG. 1  it can be seen that the permanent animal containment enclosure  11  is provided with a corral area  17  and an accustomizing area  18  where, as hereinshown, beef cattle  19  or deer, pork, ostrich  20  or sheep and lamb  21  are being accustomized and fed hops or dietary feed which may be prescribed for a specific animal. The animals are further inspected by a veterinarian. It is likely that an animal could spend several hours in this accustomizing area depending if the animal has been subjected to a lot of stress. A displaceable gate  22  separates this area from the corral area. The permanent animal containment enclosure is an insulated building structure constructed for year round operation. 
   When the animal is deemed to be fit for slaughter then each animal, such as the one identified by reference numeral  19 ′, is separated in the corral area  17  and caused to move, by the displaceable gate  23 , to an entrance area  24  which leads to an internal isolated slaughter room  25  which is completely isolated from the accustomizing area  18  or corral area  17  so that the animals are not further stressed by the sound caused by the animal or personnel working in the slaughter room. A displaceable gate  26  (see  FIG. 7 ), will lead the animal into the entrance area  24  when the gate  23  pushes the animal in that area. The animal is then brought into a containment structure  27  where the animal is restrained and then anesthetized with a percussion tool well known in the art. The anesthetized animal is then slid on a reception platform  33 . 
   The slaughter room  25  is provided with access doors  28  to provide access to personnel thereto. It is also provided with a large door opening  29  where thermally insulated sliding doors  30  are installed to permit communication to the rear end  31  of the mobile abattoir  12 . A retractable shelter  34  is mounted about the opening  29  exteriorly thereof to shield the rear end  31  of the mobile abattoir  12  from outside weather when coupled to the slaughter room  25  of the permanent animal containment enclosure  11 . 
   Referring now to  FIG. 4  there is shown a rear end section  31 ′ of the mobile abattoir. As can be seen, the rear end of the mobile abattoir  12  is provided with a receiving station  35  in which there is provided an extendable boom  36  which swings into the slaughter room  25  wherein the anesthetized animal  19 ′ is hooked by its hind legs  19 ″ by a hook  37  and hoisted above the platform  33 . The animal is bled with blood collected in a stainless steel container  41  under the grate  33 ′ of the platform and the head and legs are cut off. The head is washed on a washing basin and the skin is lifted from the front legs and these legs are out-off. Other standard functions are performed on the animal and it is then swung into the receiving station  35  of the mobile abattoir wherein the anesthetized animal  19  is transferred to a hook  38  on an overhead conveyor  39 . 
   Referring now to  FIGS. 2 ,  6 A and  6 B it can be seen that the receiving station  35  is staffed by one or two persons  40  working in the slaughter room  25  and experienced with abattoir work. The animal is skinned, and the skin is returned to the animal supplier at a receiving station outside the abattoir at location  43 . The workers  40  effect this work with well known tools, obvious to person skill in the art and which are manually and automatically operated. The animal is transferred by the overhead conveyor  39  to a gut removal station  44  where a veterinarian  45  inspects the guts to make sure that there are no diseases in the animal. The animal carcass is then cut in half to form two carcasses and one of the workers or the veterinarian  45  will stamp both carcasses with an identification code which identifies the animal supplier of these carcasses for tracing the animal to the supplier in the specific sector of the geographic location. Doors  46  separate the receiving station  35  from the gut removal and inspection station  44  for sanitary purposes and the personnel working in the receiving station  35  are not permitted in that station so that there is no transfer of bacteria etc. The identified carcasses are then transferred by the overhead conveyor  39  to a refrigerated room  47  at the other end of the mobile abattoir. 
   As can be seen the front end of the abattoir is provided with a mechanical room  48  which houses a hot water tank  49 , a compressor  50 , a power generator  51 , a pump  52  and any other pieces of equipment required to make the mobile abattoir self-sustaining. 
   With reference to  FIGS. 6A and 6B  various accessories of the mobile abattoir will now be identified. In the receiving station  35  there is provided a sink  60  and a head washing basin  61 . A “de-skinning” machine  62  is also used to remove the skin of the animal and this is well known in art. At the next station where the guts are analyzed there is provided a gutter or shoot  63  to eject the guts out of the mobile unit into an external reservoir. Also, a carcass containment device  64  is used to split the carcass in a half and this type of apparatus is well known in the art. The veterinarian is also provided with a cabinet  65  to house instruments and a washing basin  66  for his use. A remote computer station is provided to enter the data relating to the carcass into the computer program to disseminate information relating to the carcass that just been processed. 
   Accordingly, one can appreciate that with the regional abattoir system as above-described which comprises a permanent animal containment enclosure strategically positioned in delineated sectors of a geographic area in combination with a mobile abattoir which services these permanent animal containment enclosures produces the many advantages of the present invention as above described. Accordingly, regional suppliers can produce quality meat for human consumption with the meat being traceable to the regional supplier such that such sector or region or supplier within the region can be identified with the quality of its products, thereby increasing the demand for such products. A region, or suppliers in a region, can therefore become famous for supplying a high quality product which is constant demand. Also, with the method as above-described the animals are not subjected to stressful environments and are not stressed ore buised before being slaughtered and this produces meat of superior quality. Still further, with the method and the system as above-described the auctioneer and broker have been eliminated from the chain of supply between the animal producer and the retailer and the suppliers become more competitive. When there is a demand for meat products from a specific region where there are several small suppliers, as illustrated in  FIG. 3 , the mobile abattoir can relocate to the permanent animal containment enclosure in that region and process carcasses therefrom and bring them directly to market. 
   The mobile abattoir is a tractor trailer unit as illustrated in  FIG. 1  which measures approximately 53 feet in length and which is adapted for displacement on highways. Of course, the veterinarian is scheduled to visit the mobile abattoir whenever it is intended to process animals whereby the animals processed thereby are inspected in accordance with Government regulations. The abattoir is also constructed of many stainless steel parts and in a fashion for ease of cleaning and sanitation with hot water being supplied directly from the mechanical room  48 . All of the piping and equipment are not illustrated herein but obvious to a person skill in the art. With the method of traceability the entire system is provided on a website for quick access to identify the suppliers by the code attributed thereto and contained on the carcass. This code is transferred on all of the meat cuts and appears on the labels which are generated by the computerized scales where the information is entered by the butcher. This system and method is also ideal for animal suppliers who raise bio-fed animals where there could be a noticeable difference in the taste of the meat produced by such animals. 
   It is within the ambit of the present invention to cover any obvious modifications of the preferred embodiment described herein, provided such modifications fall within the scope of the appended claims.