Traders at several wet markets in Ipoh are up in arms against the government’s move to ban the slaughter of poultry in wet markets under local authorities, reports The Star.

Calling it ridiculous, they said the move would only cost them more time and money to get their poultry slaughtered.

Mohd Ali Zainon, who have been operating a stall selling chicken meat at the Jelapang wet market for the past 17 years said the traders, would not adhere to the ban and fight for their rights.

Mohd Ali said firstly that the traders would have to go to a location to get the chicken slaughtered, which would involve a cost, and also customers would not buy chicken that was not fresh.

He said even at the slaughterhouses, there was no guarantee that the chicken would be slaughtered the halal way because foreigners are hired to do the job.

“Even if the slaughter house charges a minimum fee of 50sen per chicken, in a day we slaughter about 200 chickens, imagine them making about RM3,000 per month.

“This amount makes a lot of difference to us, as we can use the money to settle our monthly house, car and other instalments.

“And what happens to our investments of buying boilers and processing machinery which cost about RM15,000,” said the furious trader.

The vocal Mohd Ali added if the government came up with the excuse that the move was to avoid infectious diseases caused by slaughtering activities, then he and the rest of the traders would have been dead a long time ago.

“And if they are comparing our markets here with those in Britain, United States and other developed countries, then I suggest the status of the Jelapang market be converted to be at par with such overseas markets,” he added.

Recently, reports The Star, the National Council for Local Government announced the ban, saying that it was to avoid infectious diseases caused by slaughtering activities, besides minimising the number of cockroaches, flies and rats in the markets.

The move was also to ensure that poultry was slaughtered in accordance to the guidelines set by the Islamic Development Department (Jakim) and state Islamic religious councils.