PESHAWAR, April 29: The practice by butchers of slaughtering animals inside their houses, instead of the city’s slaughterhouses, is causing financial losses to the local government.

Officials said there were two slaughterhouses in the city, one located on the Charsadda Road and run by the Town II administration, and the other on the Ring Road which had been given to a private contractor by the Town-I administration since 2003-4. They said an estimated 350,000 animals were slaughtered in the city every year, half of them being slaughtered illegally by butchers in their private slaughterhouses inside their homes.

About 100 to 110 animals are slaughtered in the Charsadda Road slaughterhouse every day. The Town-II administration receives Rs10 per slaughtered animal and its per annum income is Rs300,000.

The establishment of private slaughterhouses in the jurisdiction of Town-I has cut its income and the district government provides no funds to the town administration.

Before the establishment of private slaughterhouses, the government-owned slaughterhouse generated Rs6 million per annum. Sources said private slaughterhouses paid 15 per cent of their income to the district government. The city government received Rs13,000 per month and Rs150,000 annually.