Knackeries across the country will close their gates to farmers seeking to dispose of dead animals from tomorrow, Thursday, February 27, as their dispute with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine escalates.

Having brought a halt to animal collection services on the road as of today, the Animal Collectors’ Association (ACA) has announced that a full closure is on the cards for its member knackery businesses as of tomorrow.

A spokesperson for the ACA also said that the knackeries have rejected the amended Fallen Animal Scheme for Fallen Farm Stock, announced by the department yesterday.

“We’re not accepting the scheme, obviously, and there is no collection of animals today. It will be going to full closure tomorrow,” the spokesperson said.

The department hasn’t taken heed of any of our concerns since last September obviously.

“We’ve heard nothing from them. The only thing we’ve got from them was when they sent on that scheme last night – after we had been told about it from journalists.

“We were the last to see it,” the representative said.

The ACA spokesperson said that the scheme announced had already been turned down by the knackery representative organisation.

“The closure is going ahead until this is signed, sealed and delivered because they ran rings around us the last time – they made commitments and they haven’t followed through on any of them,” the spokesperson said.