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ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



food products of said animals enter, in whole or in part, for inter- 

 state or foreign commerce, shall make application to the Secretary 

 of Agriculture for inspection or for exemption from inspection. The 

 said application shall be made in writing, addressed to the Secre- 

 tary of Agriculture, Washington, D. C, and shall state the loca- 

 tion of the establishment, the address of the owner, or of a duly 

 authorized oiticer or agent of the same, the kinds of animals slaugh- 

 tered, the estimated amount of meats or meat food products received 

 from other establishments, and the character, quality and proposed 

 disposition of the products of said establishment. Blank application 

 forms will be furnished by the Chief of the Bureau of Animal Indus- 

 try, upon request. If an establishment is not in a sanitary condi- 

 tion, inspection shall not be established, and the products cannot 

 enter inter-state or export trade. 



Only farmers and retail butchers or dealers supplying their cus- 

 tomers may be exempt under the law, but they are, nevertheless, 

 subject to the provisions of the law which places a penalty upon any 

 person who shall sell or offer for sale or transportation for inter- 

 state or foreign commerce, any meat or meat food products which 

 are diseased, unsound, unhealthful, unwholesome or otherwise unfit 

 for human consumption. The law applies only to four animals — 

 cattle, sheep, swine and goats — and to the carcasses, meat and meat 

 food products of these animals, and is administered by the Bureau 

 of Animal Industry. 



The Secretary of Agriculture is authorized, in his discretion, to 

 cause an ante-mortem inspection to be made of the four above named 

 animals before they shall be allowed to enter into any slaughtering 

 establishment. The law provides that all animals found on such ante- 

 mortem inspection to show symptoms of disease shall be set apart 

 and slaughtered separately from other animals, and when so slaugh- 

 tered the carcasses shall be subject to a careful ante-mortem exam- 

 ination and inspection. The ante-mortem inspection shall not be 

 made until the animal becomes the property of the establishment or 

 the department lias no control over its disposition. 



All postmortem examinations and inspections are made by com- 

 petent veterinary inspectors, graduates of reputable colleges, w^ho, 

 in addition to the college course, have passed a stringent civil serv- 

 ice examination. 



The number of veterinary inspectors employed by the department 

 under the old Meat Inspection Law was 324. The number of vet- 

 erinary inspectors of the department on December 1, 1906, was 581. 

 During the month of October, 1906, the veterinary inspectors made 

 postmortem inspection of 4.062,389 animals, and caused the abso- 

 lute destruction for food purposes, by rendering into non-edible 

 grease, or fertilizer, 2,938 cattle and calves, 832 sheep and 8,328 swine 

 —11,089 in all. 



In addition to the carcasses absolutely destroyed for food pur- 

 poses several thousand other animals were rendered into lard or 

 tallow in order to protect the consumer against any possible danger 

 of infection from eating the meat in a raw or rare state. A conserv- 

 ative estimate of the value, if healthy, of the carcasses and parts 

 destroyed for food purposes by inspectors during the course of one 

 year is more thau two and one-half million dollars. In addition to 

 the veterinary ius[)ectors above mentioned, we have another class 



