For farms

Abattoirs on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands

Meat you sell in BC has to be slaughtered under a licence — at a licensed abattoir, or on your own farm with a Farmgate or Farmgate Plus licence. These are the 16 licensed abattoirs on the Island and the Gulf Islands; 11 say they take animals from other farms.

Book before you raise the animals

Island abattoirs are small and book up: Gunter Bros opens its fall and winter dates on June 1, Lester’s is busiest from mid-August to November, and Salt Spring asks poultry farmers to request dates when they order chicks. No room anywhere? Slaughtering on your own farm with a Farmgate licence is the other route.

Farmgate Plus farms can slaughter for you too

A farm with a Farmgate Plus licence may slaughter other farmers’ animals, within its own yearly limit — and its meat is labelled “Not Government Inspected”. The province lists them, with the abattoirs, on its map of licensed slaughter sites.

Show plants that take

16 of 16 plants

Greater Victoria & Gulf Islands

Cowichan Valley

Nanaimo region

Comox Valley

Where the meat can be sold afterwards depends on the licence it was slaughtered under: slaughter licences compared. None of these plants is federally licensed — there is no federally licensed slaughter plant on the Island — so meat slaughtered here can be sold only within BC.

About this list

Last checked 26 September 2026. We check this guide regularly against Island Health, provincial and municipal sources, but regulations and laws change often and we can’t guarantee it is complete or current. Confirm with Island Health and your municipality before you apply, build or sell.

Noticed an error? Tell us

Tell us what’s wrong and where you saw it. We read every message and correct the guide.