Built for more than thirty years, the only public slaughterhouse of the city of Jacmel, on the street Mayard, is in a deplorable state. The building looks abandoned, inside and out, feces and debris of all sorts littered the floor, while clouds of flies invade the environment.

Despite everything, the butchers have no other choice than to use this space, which is the only public slaughterhouse of the city. Due to the lack of trestles, butchers kill animals on the floor and install the meat in places invades by flies.

Next to the slaughterhouse, is located the Preschool "Le nid des oiseaux" where children spend all day breathing the unhealthy smell of the slaughterhouse. Furthermore, due to a lack of recreational space in the school grounds, children are forced to play up in front the slaughterhouse, in an air environment strongly carrier of germs, dangerous, as immune system of children at this age is very fragile.

Surrounded by private homes, the unsanitary of the slaughterhouse of Jacmel, also represents a danger for the health of residents "There are two great moments where he situation is more complicated for us, when it is noon, the smell rises because the sun's rays. Then when night falls, dogs invade the slaughterhouse in search of food," declared a resident of the area.

Faced with this intolerable situation, several butchers criticize and deplore the inaction of local authorities, particularly those of the mayor, who have not taken any steps to move this unique slaughterhouse obsolete in modern infrastructure.

"The slaughterhouse has not even water to wash the kidneys of animals after the killing, moreover it does not even have a toilet," says one of the butchers. While the regional office of the General Tax Directorate (DGI) of Jacmel, requires every Saturday, a tax to the livestock merchants and butchers at market Mayard, located only 3 meters from the slaughterhouse. The butchers are wondering about the use of these funds...

It's the same situation in iron market of Jacmel, where the butchers install their meat for sale, on a concrete table or suspended in an environment exposed to flies.

Consume meat bought in the market of Jacmel, in defiance of basic health rules is a danger to human health. The underclass is always the most vulnerable in these kind of situations.

Jean Jeudi, defender of human rights of the Company Makaya (SOMA), strongly denounces the poor conditions of hygiene in the slaughterhouse of the city. He criticized the municipal authorities of Jacmel that give no supervision to butchers and advocates for better working conditions. He points to the town hall and the departmental managers of the Ministry of Public Health who show no willingness to resolve this problem, while these leaders often frequent this area and know the situation...

The human rights defender, invites the public Jacmelienne, particularly the meat consumers to file complaints against the State and the authorities concerned, which allow for too long, people eat meat prepared under sanitary conditions dangerous.

The leaders of South-East department will they wait until people start to become infected by eating meat that may be contaminated, before making a decision ? A file that HaitiLibre will follow closely.

HL/ Claudy Bélizaire (Correspondant Jacmel)