Proprietary inspection

Efficient proprietary inspection is important as a means of achieving good animal welfare, production and economy. Efficient proprietary inspection is also important as a means of making sure that people are aware that the business is meeting the animal health requirements defined in Swedish law. The aim of this is to allow welfare problems that could affect business to be discovered and prevented. There it currently a joint proprietary inspection programme for mink breeders, known as Mink Health. There is no similar programme for chinchilla breeders at present. For mink breeders, a European inspection programme known as WelFur is currently being developed as well. The European Fur Breeders Association, which is responsible for WelFur, has based the programme on Welfare Quality™, the equivalent for food-producing animals.

Proprietary inspection during killing

Proprietary inspection can be divided into four different elements: sufficient knowledge, inspection of equipment, risk assessment and documentation.

Sufficient knowledge
As a breeder, you are responsible for your activities, for ensuring that you comply with the law and for ensuring good animal welfare. As a result, you are responsible for acquiring the knowledge you need. As a breeder, you are also responsible for ensuring that your personnel have sufficient expertise in the activities that you delegate to them and that they have the knowledge and skills necessary to care for the animals and deal with activities effectively (see the points below):

Do you and your personnel have sufficient knowledge of:

• the animals’ biological principles
• how to handle the animals
• legislation applicable to your activities
• approved killing methods and how they are to be practised
• the difference between killing for pelting and the killing of sick or injured animals