Guidance

Using animal by-products to feed carnivores

The carnivores you can feed, when your site must be registered, authorised, or recognised, and the animal by-products you can use.

From:
Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and Animal and Plant Health Agency
Published
5 September 2014
Last updated
9 October 2014 — See all updates

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

Carnivores you can feed

You can feed category 2 and 3 animal by-products (ABPs) to the following carnivores:

  • dogs at a recognised kennel
  • packs of hounds
  • zoo animals
  • reptiles and birds of prey, either in zoos or if they’re pets
  • maggots and worms intended for use as fishing bait

Find out about the 3 different categories of ABP.

Registering as a final user

If you feed category 2 and 3 ABPs, you’re considered a final user and you must register your site with the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).

Qualifying as a recognised kennel

If you use ABPs as feed at a site with kennels on it, it must be a recognised kennel.

Contact the APHA if you don’t know whether your kennel is recognised.

To be recognised, you must show that domestic pets, ruminants, pigs and poultry can’t access your site.

Registering as a recognised kennel

You must also register a recognised kennel for feeding before you can use ABPs to feed dogs there.

Feeding ABPs to pet animals at home

In England

In England, you can feed pet animals at your home with raw category 3 ABPs.

You can receive materials from slaughterhouses, cutting rooms or butcher shops, and you don’t have to register.

In Wales

In Wales, you can feed pet animals with raw category 3 ABPs at your home.

You must register your home with APHA before you can receive category 3 material from slaughterhouses or cutting rooms.

In Scotland

You can’t feed category 3 ABPs to pets at home in Scotland.

Feeding category 1 ABPs at zoos

You can feed some category 1 ABPs to carnivores at a zoo, but you must get your site authorised by the APHA.

To get your site authorised, you must show you’re not feeding category 1 ABPs as a way to:

  • get rid of specified risk material - body parts that carry a risk of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE)
  • dispose of animal carcasses that have a risk of TSE

You must also make sure:

  • only animals that are allowed to be fed category 1 ABPs (carnivores) have access to them
  • your feed and storage areas are enclosed and secure
  • any cattle carcasses you use as feed have been tested for TSE, if they’re older than 48 months

You must also keep a record of:

  • the type of animal you used as feed or the animal any body parts came from
  • the TSE test history of the animal or any parts you used
  • the date you used a given animal or any parts as feed

If you’re using entire bodies or parts of dead animals that contain specified risk material (SRM), for example cattle spinal cords, you must have a TSE checking system that meets UK law.

In practice this means that only cattle that are younger than 48 months may be used as feed.

If your zoo is authorised you can then use:

  • zoo animal carcasses or parts as feed for your zoo carnivores
  • ruminant carcasses containing specified risk material (SRM)

Staining before feeding at zoos

If you take in whole carcasses to be cut up on-site before use as feed, they don’t need to be stained as category 1 before feeding.

You must only take in category 2 ABPs from collection centres or slaughterhouses if they’ve been stained with Black PN or Brilliant Black PN or an equivalent stain.

Animals you can’t feed with ABPs

You must never feed ABPs to any farmed animals, for example:

  • ruminants (animals that chew the cud)
  • pigs
  • poultry
  • horses

Sites that can’t receive ABPs

You must not bring ABPs onto any site where livestock could have access to them.

Storage and transport

Learn how to store ABPs and how to transport them.

Getting rid of ABP waste

You must send any unused or leftover ABPs to an approved processing, incinerating or co-incinerating plant.

Collection centres

If you collect fallen stock in order to remove the flesh to feed to carnivores, then your site is a collection centre.

Find out how you must collect and treat ABPs at a collection centre.

Updates to this page

Published 5 September 2014
Last updated 9 October 2014 + show all updates

  1. AHVLA documents have been re-assigned to the new Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).

  2. AHVLA documents have been re-assigned to the new Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).

  3. First published.

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