1828.] Notes for the Month. 181 



with the rights and profits of individuals, and that it ought to be 

 resisted. 



As regards the construction of the " abattoirs/' or public slaughter 

 houses for we agree entirely in one position taken by a member of the 

 butcher's company, " that it is quite needless to adopt French terms, to 

 express that which can be just as completely described in plain English 

 we think that the Society is decidedly in the wrong." The local cir- 

 cumstances of London, and of Paris, are extremely different. It can 

 matter nothing at all to the animals slaughtered in England, whether 

 they are killed at the private houses of butchers, or at public establish- 

 ments : and the narrow streets of Paris, unfurnished with foot pave- 

 ments, supply a case at once for forbidding cattle to be driven through 

 the streets of that metropolis, which does not arise in our own. Apart, 

 however, from the introduction of " abattoirs," the Society for the Pre- 

 vention of Cruelty has ulterior views, with respect to the control and 

 treatment of brute animals, and views which no individuals will be 

 more happy than ourselves to see realised ; but which we are afraid will not 

 be assisted (while great inconvenience and vexation may be produced) 

 by the course which they are pursuing. A few extracts, from a well 

 written pamphlet, called " The Voice of Humanity," published by their 

 order, will exemplify that which we take to be the impracticable part of 

 their design. 



After an account of the "pits" kept for animal fighting against w r hich 

 we entirely agree that it is much easier to make a case than in their 

 favour the society proceed to speak of those wretched scenes of human 

 degradation, and brute suffering, the yards of the horse slaughterers, or 

 " knackers." 



<e On this subject (the writer says) as well as every other, we wish the 

 public would judge for themselves. There the racer, the hunter, the hack, 

 the carriage horse, and the cart horse, exhibit a picture that the pen cannot 

 describe. Brought now to the last stage of life, from old age, disease, or 

 accidents, they are turned into an open yard or pound, with no covering from 

 the inclemency of cold and rain ; no bed but the filth of the place ; and all 

 suffering pain from those diseases that have incapacitated them for future 

 usefulness. Even death by starvation is very frequently added, as they have 

 no food given them, and are slaughtered either according to the number in 

 hand, or the demand for their flesh, it being often a matter of indifference 

 whether they die in this way or are slaughtered." 



Again, in speaking of another establishment of the same description : 



" We saw there a glandered horse which had been sent to be killed, but 

 which had been worked in a cart for more than two years in this state. It is 

 no uncommon thing when a knacker discovers a horse may be worked a few 

 days or weeks longer, to sell it (frequently with an agreement to take it 

 again, dead or alive, at a fixed price), for a dust cart or night hackney coach, 

 subject to such treatment as would not be permitted to a sound horse, till it 

 is literally worked to death. We would advise persons to have horses killed 

 while in their possession, and then, and not till then, sell them to knackers." 



The slaughterhouses for cattle, as they exist at present under the con- 

 trol of the butchers are also spoken of with great complaint : 



" The slaughterhouses for cattle, like the last mentioned sinks of depravity, 

 are wholly without any legislative provision to protect the cattle slaughtered 

 for our daily food from cruelty in every shape. The slaughterhouses in 

 London are a disgrace to the nation. Those for calves, sheep, and lambs', 



