364 EEPOET OF THE BUREAU OP ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



most prominent packing firms, the use of the prodding pole and 

 other cruel methods of driving cattle have "been entirely abandoned. 

 In spite of every precaution, some dead or maimed cattle are found 

 in almost every train load. The mortality among hogs in transit is 

 also unavoidably great. The latter animals when ready for shipment 

 are, in homely phrase, " fat as butter." In the course of the journey 

 some of them get down in the cars, and unable to get up again, are 

 trampled to death or smothered by their companions. Dead cattle 

 and hogs entering the stock-yard in this way never pass into con- 

 sumption as food in any form. A company, known as the Union 

 Rendering Company, which, in fact, is an offshoot of the Stock Yard 

 Company, has the exclusive right of receiving all such dead ani- 

 mals, at a price so profitable to itself that it keeps stern guard over 

 the arriving trains and suffers no dead animal to escape. By that 

 company they are rendered down into grease, glue, and fertilizers. 

 There is but one way in which animals intended for human food can 

 get into the packing-houses, and that is alive and on their feet. From 

 the time they enter at the slaughtering end until they emerge at the 

 other end, dressed, cured, salted, or canned, there is a continuous 

 chain of manipulation, carried on by organized gangs of workmen, 

 each under the control of a foreman, which could not be broken in 

 upon without disarranging the whole course of business and attract- 

 ing general attention. It must be obvious, without further demon- 

 stration, that, with the enormous capital involved, and dependent 

 for its continued profitable employment on the maintenance or public 

 confidence, n ) packer, even if he could do so without detection, would 

 endanger the safety of millions of dollars for the insignificant profit 

 to be derived from handling a limited number of diseased or dead 

 animals in his business. 



SLAUGHTERING AND DRESSING CATTLE. 



Cattle purchased for packing are driven into pens at the slaughter- 

 house, and detained there for some hours until they are cool and free 

 from all excitement. In hot weather water is frequently played upon 

 them through hose. When they are cool and quiet they are allowed 

 to wander, or are gently urged down a chute which opens into a num- 

 ber of little pens, each just large enough to hold one fat steer, with- 

 out allowing room for him to turn round. These are the felling pens. 

 They are opened or closed at either end by a trap door. Sometimes 

 the cattle find their own way into the pens through the open doors, 

 but in any case they need but little urging to induce them to enter. 

 Once inside, they never come out again alive. Commanding each 

 pen is a narrow stage, roughly put together with a few boards and 

 a gang-plank leading from pen to pen, raised about a foot above the 

 level of the animal's head. On this stage the executioner stands, 

 sledge-hammer in hand. He watches his opportunity until he sees 

 the doomed steer standing perfectly still, with its head in the right 

 position, and then, carefully taking aim, he delivers one crushing 

 blow in the middle of the forehead. Without groan or cry the ani- 

 mal drops, stunned and insensible, the sound of its fall reaching the 

 ear almost at the same instant as the crash of the blow. The trap 

 door in front of the pen is quickly raised ; a chain attached to steam 

 machinery is thrown over the animal's horns, and it is dragged out 

 upon the slaughtering floor. There one or more blows are given it 

 and its throat is cut, to complete the work begun in the felling pen, 



