PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS. 



731 



istration of anaesthetics, are very great, the application of the chloroform may be gradual, the 

 animal being allowed to respire the outward air for a moment, until these effects pass off. 

 As it is by the exclusion of common air, however, that death is produced, the more persist 

 ently the administration of the chloroform is kept up, the more speedy will be the desired 

 result. The dose requisite varies very much according to circumstances. At least sixteen 

 ounces of chloroform should be procured, and it should be freshly applied through a small 

 slit in the bag every few minutes until death ensues, which will be from five to ten or fifteen 

 minutes after the beginning of the operation. 



The difficulties attending the administration of chloroform to so large and powerful an 

 animal as the horse, particularly at the hands of the inexperienced, render its use less applica 

 ble than either of the other methods. In cases where sickness and consequent debility have 

 reduced the animal, and made him less capable of struggling, it answers a good purpose, or 

 where a pet horse is to be killed, and the owner is unwilling that the deadly blow shall be 

 struck, chloroform may be resorted to, but, as a general rule, we do not recommend its use where 

 the normal amount of strength still remains. 



Best Method Of Killing Cattle. The skull of the ox is thicker and heavier than 

 that of the horse, and the brain still smaller in comparison with the entire head. The 



frontal bone is composed of two plates, which are 

 separated by bony ridges, forming cells or sinuses. 

 This arrangement (seen in Fig. 3, which repre 

 sents a longitudinal section of the head), gives to 

 the parts great strength, and forms a secure 

 defence against injuries to the brain, which lies 

 beneath. 



Cattle are most readily and conveniently de- 



FKJ. 3. stroyed by blows on the head with a heavy axe or 



hammer, followed by immediate blood-letting. 



The animal which is to be killed should be secured by means of a rope passed round the 

 horns and fastened to a post, or, if practicable, carried through a ring in the floor, and held 

 or made fast by an assistant. The animal being blindfolded, the operator, armed with a 

 heavy axe or hammer, stands at the side and a little in front of it, and aims his blow at a 

 spot in the middle of a line drawn across the forehead about one inch and a half below the 

 base of the horns, or, perhaps better, at a spot where two 

 diagonal lines intersect, drawn from the eyes to the base of the 

 horns. (Pig. 4.) 



In most cases, if the blow is heavy and properly directed, 

 the animal falls instantly; but it is better even then to repeat 

 the blow, and to follow it by immediate bleeding. This is 

 accomplished either by drawing back the head, and cutting 

 deeply across the neck at the upper portion of the windpipe, 

 severing all the blood-vessels, or by plunging a long and sharp- 

 pointed knife into the heart and large blood-vessels at a point 

 corresponding to the upper portion of the brisket, and just above 

 the breast-bone. 



Failure to fell the animal at the first blow cannot be attributed to any difference in the ana 

 tomical structure of the part, but rather to the fact that the blow was ill-directed, almost inva 

 riably too low, that it was not sufficiently powerful, or that both of these faults were combined. 



Slaughtering Calves. In the slaughtering of calves it is not a common practice 

 with us, as it is with France and other countries, to render them insensible before bleeding, 

 for fear that the brain may be made less inviting as an article of food by being torn and 



FIG. 4. 



