SCHENECTADY Store to offer fresh-killed poultry City aids new Guyanese business BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Kathleen Moore at 395-3120 or moore@dailygazette.com
By Thanksgiving, Schenectadians will be able to pick out a chicken and have it butchered without running afoul of the city’s ban on such practices. It will be done Guyanese-style. After the Schenectady City Council two years ago passed a law banning city residents from harboring — and then killing — poultry and livestock in their backyards, Guyanese called relatives and friends in search of someone who could meet the city’s health rules. Mayor Brian U. Stratton told them backyard slaughters were a health risk, but said he’d allow an industrial slaughter facility, which could be inspected and regulated. So local Guyanese found a Guyanese immigrant in Florida who had operated a live poultry store in Guyana. A friend asked the Jagiah family to come to Schenectady and open a store. City officials were eager to help, in hopes of appeasing Guyanese who believed the city had turned against them by enacting the ban. They sold the Jagiahs a city-owned building at 714 Broadway, at the edge of I-890, but learned that the lot was contaminated by old gas tanks. Delaying the closing, Housing Rehabilitation Supervisor Steve Jacobson negotiated with the Department of Environmental Conservation, which agreed to pay 90 percent of the cleanup costs. The city paid the rest of the $90,000 bill. After a year of cleanup, the lot was finally deemed acceptable last month. The city council discussed the transfer at committee meetings Monday and will vote on the sale next Tuesday. The Jagiahs, who can’t wait to get started, plan to be open in six weeks. They will sell poultry, including ducks and chicken, but no livestock, which Jacobson said is prohibited under the city’s health rules. That means they won’t be able to offer goat, the animal that sparked the ban. A boy reportedly heard the goat being killed next door, upsetting his parents enough that they called the mayor, who proposed a ban on all animal slaughter. That was later watered down to a ban on harboring poultry and livestock, which prevents residents from butchering their own meat because they can’t harbor it on their property for any length of time. Jacobson said the city will allow slaughter at the Broadway store, tentatively named Triple S in honor of the Jagiahs’ three children. Shoppers will be able to pick out the bird of their choice, which would be slaughtered on-site immediately, Terry and Geeta Jagiah said. They expect a booming business. Their friends have been driving to distant farms or traveling to New York City just to get fresh meat while they waited for the store to open. They could have purchased meat from the mainstream grocery stores in the city, but most Guyanese immigrants won’t even consider touching meat dead that long, Geeta Jagiah said. “Where we from, that’s where we get the freshness. We want to do the slaughtering and then cook it,” she said. Her husband Terry added, “People up here, they need it. It tastes better. Like when you taste fruits from the trees, it tastes better.”
I'll take them pre-slaughtered, pre-plucked, pre-packaged and even pre-frozen thank you!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
In response to the Oct. 2 article regarding the new slaughterhouse, we feel it would be a barbaric regression from America in the 21st century to walk into a store and have an animal killed on demand. Schenectady has great respect for the Guyanese, and cultural diversity in general; however, with advancements such as the Metroplex and Proctors, we don’t need a slaughterhouse. We should not have given into Guyanese pressure, as we have numerous, other cultures. What is next, ritualistic sacrifices in Central Park or voodoo? This is civilized society. Let the Guyanese contribute with their art or music; we don’t need the slaughtering of livestock in our city. Is the Guyanese-style the article mentioned humane under the guidelines of the Food and Drug Administraiton or for the treatment of animals? SANDRA AND CHRISTOPHER BLESSING Schenectady
Sandy you don't have to walk into the store in the first place and see anything so just let the people who feel that they need this type of store alone and shop at Price Chopper.
They must be vegetarians.....or they like standing behind the curtain too.....if you are not a vegetarian then where do you think your food comes from??? How long has it been sitting in the meat cooler in the store and how many times has it been irradiated before you purchased it......they must also prefer canned vegetables as opposed to the fresh ones with the 'dirt' still on them....?????
Just animals.....I cant believe this conversation is coming up just because they are Guyanese.....the Italian/Polish/Irish immigrants did the same--anyone complain then???
Someone I worked with told me once about some stores in NYC that offer fresh killed fare.....yup, in the big 'civilized' city......
I have gutted a few deer before (after killing them of course) and I bet I could have dinner at your home and be civilized at the dinner table......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
I still remember my grand-father killing a chicken in the backyard for Sunday dinner when I was very young. It was common practice on farms and in the suburbs in the years gone by. I think that a lot of problems we are dealing with like e coli salmonella and other bacterias are because our store bought meat hangs around the stores too long b4 it's sold.
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