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Rancher's cow-hunting scheme contravenes food safety laws
Alberta man wants his steers hunted, for a price

Archie McLean
Edmonton Journal

November 16, 2004

EDMONTON -- You've heard of shooting fish in a barrel: How about shooting cows in a corral?

When Leduc rancher Ed Wedman noticed deer hunters traipsing through his property in search of wild animals to shoot and eat, he had an idea. Why not let them shoot and eat his domesticated animals?

After all, the mad-cow crisis had rendered his Holstein steers virtually worthless and they're great meat, tasty and low in cholesterol. The packers had offered him less than 30 cents per pound, far lower than the animals are worth.

"Everybody's trying some angle, and I figured, 'What's this going to hurt?' " Wedman explained.

So, Wedman took out an ad in The Edmonton Journal's classifieds section last week. It read: HUNTERS WELCOME / Hunt beef, no licence required / $500. Ph: 916-0788

So far, he's had no calls. But he's going to run the ad again in a different section in hopes of enticing some hungry hunters, or maybe a family looking for a bargain on 200-225 kg of Alberta beef.

"It's a way of trying to market these animals, trying to bring some awareness to people," he said.

Wedman, who led Edmonton's urban cattle drive in October, says he's willing to negotiate, too. If there's a family who can't afford the whole shot at once, maybe they could space it out over the year, he says. He's a businessman.

But, there's a small catch. It's illegal.

"The shooting, as long as it's done humanely, is not an issue," said Floyd Mullaney of the food-safety division of Alberta Agriculture. The SPCA said they had no problem, either.

"But, what is an issue is the meat-inspection act," Mullaney said.

Mullaney explained that Wedman does not have a licence for an abattoir, or slaughterhouse. There are 65 licensed red-meat slaughterhouses in the province, but they are all tightly regulated, primarily for sanitation reasons.

"[A small packer] would have spent about $1 million on their operation meeting the standards," said Mullaney. "And now all of a sudden, here's a guy who is going to go slaughter these animals out in the middle of the corral or out in the middle of the field. Now, that doesn't make sense from a food-safety point of view."

According to Mullaney, Wedman can sell a live animal to a customer, who could then take it to a slaughterhouse. But he can't invite hunters to kill cows on his property.

Wedman doesn't care. "They're going to have to take me to task on it," he said.

Mullaney said Alberta Agriculture will pursue the case. If Wedman goes ahead, the maximum fine is $10,000 plus a year in jail. But Mullaney stressed that the ministry is not in the business of putting farmers in the slammer. Instead, they will talk to Wedman and outline legal alternatives.