100 PUBLIC ABATTOIRS AND THE PR?:VENTION, ETC. 



and the doing of business on a large scale. Abattoirs properly 

 managed yield a profit. 



On humanitarian grounds abattoirs are to be preferred, 

 because they would entail less cruelty to animals, owing to the 

 use of improved appliances for slaughtering, and the cattle, being 

 brought by rail to the abattoirs, would avoid becoming weary 

 and exhausted from being driven along hot, dusty roads. 



Sir Kichard Thorne, in one of his Harben lectures, says : — 

 " How is the very proper demand of the butchers for uniformity 

 in the condition regulating the seizure of carcases on account of 

 tuberculosis to be met ? How is such skilful handling of slightly 

 tuberculous carcases to be attained as will secure the removal of 

 the diseased portions in such a way that no risk will attach to 

 the remainder ? I know only one answer, namely, by the 

 abolition, as far as practicable, of private slaughter-houses, by 

 the provision in all large centres of population, whether 

 technically styled urban or rural, of public slaughter-houses, 

 under the direct control of the sanitary authorities and their 

 officers, and by the adoption of measures which will, as soon as 

 practicable, provide a class of skilled meat inspectors. 



" The properly administered public slaughter-house is 

 demanded as an act of justice to those trading in meat ; it is 

 demanded in the interests of public health and decency ; it is 

 demanded for the prevention of cruelty to the lower animals ; 

 and it is demanded to bring England, if not the United Kingdom, 

 somewhat nearer to the level of other civilised nations in this 

 matter. Public slaughter-houses, officered by skilled inspectors, 

 and supervised by medical officers of health, are urgently 

 required, amongst other reasons, for the prevention of tuber- 

 culosis in man." 



The main difficulty in dealing with the erection of public 

 abattoirs in this colony would no doubt be the cry of injury to 

 vested interests ; but no man has a right to injure his fellowman 

 by the sale to him, for purposes of food, of diseased moat, or 

 meat which has been exposed to foul emanations ; and unless 

 private slaughter-houses are managed according to prescribed 

 sanitary methods, and every facility given for the efficient 

 inspection of the animals killed therein, they should be abolished. 

 The health of the community as a whole, and of every individual 

 member of it, is of paramount importance, and no cry of this 



