Legal issues with selling meat birds as far as making someone sick ???

[randyandmegs]

I was wondering before I process all my birds, are their any legal issues I should address (or be insured for) as far as being sued over someone eating my chickens and getting sick? I have ordered the lables that explain the safe meat handling process and all but everybody knows how sue happy people are these days. Common sense should be the rule but not these days. Just curious if I have anything to really worry about.

Thanks

 

[TimG]

After you look into insurance specifically for this, I hope you'll let us know how much the insurance company would like to charge.

Do you have some sort of umbrella policy as so many people do these days?

 

[randyandmegs]

I know there is a wealth of information from folks on here so Im sure we will see some good replies to this one. I did search and couldnt find anything on the topic. All the "legal" topics had more to do with owning of chickens.

 

[patimekiller]

You may want to advetise the as on the " hoof" live they do beef sold alive but delivered to the butcher

 

[randyandmegs]

Im going to process them myself. Not sure if I follow what you are saying.

 

[cletus the rooster]

what i think patimekiller meant was "sell " the bird alive then take to the butcher.but since you are the butcher there are those things to deal with

 

[Corporate Farmer]

Anyone can sue you for food poisoning (ecoli, etc.) but I think whether someone can prevail in a lawsuit will depend on what type of regulations apply to you and whether you have complied with those regulations.

I believe to sell your butchered chickens across state lines, you must have your birds butchered at a federally inspected plant. When you are selling small batches, it will be difficult to find such plants.

At least in Wisconsin and Minnesota, to sell more than 1,000 birds per year or to restaurants, you must use a state-inspected plant. If you sell no more than 1,000 chickens, you can butcher them at home. Exempt, or uninspected, poultry plants can also butcher no more than 1,000 birds for sale or home use.

Generally in Wisconsin, birds processed at home or at an exempt plant must be labeled “not inspected, exempt 97.42” with the name and address of the producer. In Wisconsin, you can sell live chickens to customers, but these birds cannot be butchered on your farm. The buyer has to take the chickens home to butcher them.

What this means is that if you sell less than 1,000 and it's "not inspected and exempt" then the buyer is basically buying with more risk knowing that the bird was not processed in a government inspected plant. The risk shifts more to the buyer than to the seller.

This is what generally applies in Wisconsin and Minnesota, but I would guess many other states would have similar rules and regulations.

 

[patimekiller]

What I was tryen to say was advertise em as live but you will butcher them. We would all think that people would use common sense on subjects they sue about. But that never seams to happen ex. I spilt coffie on my crotch going threw the drive threw duh it's hot why do we need to lable things hot are we really desenseatizing our selfs that we can't even tell when somthing is hot .


Sorry got on a rant there

 

[Buster52]

I have never heard of a small producer being sued for such a thing.

But then I've also never heard of someone getting sick from local food production. Seems to always be from factory farms.

 

[Bossroo]

Local people getting sick from local producer's products sells only local news. Local people getting sick from large producers products sells in National news... more sensational !