Asking Butchers For Bones For The Dog

[shivvy]

Do butchers mind if you ask them for a bone for the dog when you are buying other items?
I know that they might use them for stock if they make cooked food, but if not what do they usually do with them ie are they thrown away?

Thanks.

[woofgang]

I think that is going to depend on the butcher and the only way to find out is to ask.

[pastafreak]

My butcher charges for them...about a pound I think.

[DTCwordfan]

Some charge, some don't. Make sure that it is beef as the others can splinter in the dog's mouth, including pig and sheep..... Also, homemade stock is far better than stock cubes and well worth the hassle of making. Excess can be freezed down with no problem, given some containers for it,

[Dizmo]

Generally they are destroyed. The problem lies with food hygiene and all the other red tape. It depends on the butcher as to whether or not they are willing to risk being 'strung up' by the Food Standards Agency. In the past I've asked the local butcher to give away scraps, bones and giblets which they haven't been able to use and never had a problem.

I've got nearly 10 years of experience working in the hospitality trade including kitchens and I know that it's company policy not to give 'waste' to a consumer. The only other way is to provide a service in which they charge you for 'scraps' (a loophole). This same rule applies to butchers. Just ask! what is the worse they can say? No.

[BlackadderV]

I can remember the days when, if you bought some stewing steak at the butcher's, he would throw in a kidney for free. Not these days.

[paddywak]

Our butcher used to give them to us,mind you it was an old established firm and my mum went to school with two of the older members of the family.

[Dizmo]

I think all the red tap came in when someone asked for food for their 'pet' and was actually consuming it for themselves. I'm not referring to bones but meat that had gone past its 'Best Before' (not to be confused with Sell By Date).

[DTCwordfan]

That really is an 'offal,' thing to do in not offering kidneys to you, Blackadder

[shivvy]

Oh I do ask - I ask all the time!!

Some say yes, some say no and some say that they aren't allowed to give them away.
I have never been charged for one.
I just wondered if they had any value to the butcher?

[Dizmo]

paddywak: Family run butchers who know the customer well don't mind doing that. I'm not what you'd class as an old person but I do miss the 'olden days' where you could go to the butchers and ask for scraps for your terrier tied up outside. Do that nowadays and you get metaphorically chased off with a butcher brandishing their meat cleaver.

[Dizmo]

shivvy: 9/10; No they actually cost the butcher money as they have to have them destroyed (taken away in skips/lorries).

[Dizmo]

Like I said it's red tape. If you asked for a chop for your dog and then decided to eat it yourself and it made you ill then the butcher is liable. Times have changed.

[DTCwordfan]

True. Gone are the days of tipping the bones in under the coffins....

[Dizmo]

Our local butcher who my family have used for over 50 years once gave us an entire venison ribcage. I've never seen the dogs so happy. The same butcher won't even give us giblets for the dogs now - because of how stupid this country has become with its stupid red tape palava.

[Bathsheba]

and asking him to throw in the eyes to see you through the rest of the week.....

[shivvy]

Ah, so if they have to pay to get rid of them then they shouldn't be too bothered about being asked for them.

[Dizmo]

If I went to the butcher up the road and asked for scraps they would probably say no. If I then said that we used to run a dog rescue and still run a sanctuary and need any free food we can get then they'd probably say yes. It's all down to how much they are willing to risk their business.

I was a bar manager at a very successful restaurant that did a Sunday carvery. They would fill a full BIFFA bin with waste on a Sunday alone. I was allowed to take it away (as much as I could get in the car) because I worked there. They wouldn't allow anyone else to take it for two reasons; 1. Risk of illness and repercussions for the business. 2. Financial loss (I used to eat out of the bin which was emptied off the carvery rack (NOT THE USED PLATES), I know it sounds disgusting but the bins were sterilised and I was hungry. A full 20 litre bin of Yorkshire puddings, beef, turkey, pork, roast potatoes, carrots, mushy peas and gravy). Ok so now I'm hungry just thinking about it :(

[Dizmo]

I'd like to also add before I get called a tramp, that the 20 litre bins where inside and not the actual 400litre (estimated) outside BIFFA bins.

[BlackadderV]

So much waste, which could sustain the less fortunate. Of course, we know whom we have to blame, elf 'n safety, innit?

[EDDIE51]

Our Morrison's used to sell them about 30p to 50p each but I have not seen any recently.