REPORT OF STATE VETERINARIAN. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen of the State Board of Agriculture: 

 I must again call your attention to many unwholesome con- 

 ditions existing in connection with the slaughtering of food ani- 

 mals in this State. Following the agitation some two years ago, 

 country slaughter houses were temporarily cleaned up. A large 

 per cent of the butchers of the State have drifted back into the 

 old rut and are slaughtering animals for food in plants that are 

 so filthy as to make it entirely impossible to dress a carcass in 

 them and have it clean enough to be fit to eat. A number of 

 butchers are making a practice of taking diseased animals from 

 the stock yards and slaughtering them for food. I am reliably in- 

 formed that one firm, at least, handles practically nothing but 

 diseased stuff. Such practices by even a few, are bound to reflect 

 discredit upon and damage the reputation of all plants not having 

 meat inspection, in addition to imposing upon the public with meat 

 unfit to eat. 



The practice of slaughtering diseased animals is bound to 

 grow and is growing, on account of the rejection of such stuff by 

 plants having inspection, and the field being left clear for their 

 use by plants having no inspection. Sooner or later the evil ef- 

 fects of this must be felt, not alone by the guilty, but by those 

 who have plants in proper condition, and who use only healthy 

 animals. 



As was suggested in the annual report of 1906, and in a bul- 

 letin on meat inspection, crooked practice on the part of a few 

 butchers, among those who have no meat inspection, reflects dis- 

 credit upon them all. During the next few years the process of 

 weeding out tuberculous cows from the herds of the State and 

 sending them to the market for slaughter will go on more rapidly 

 than ever before. Naturally, large numbers of these, especially 

 those that are condemned on a private test by their owners, will 



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