496 BOARD OF AGRICULTUKE. [Pub. Doc. 



man knowingly sells a horse with a contagious disease ; if 

 there is no proof that he knows or has reasonable cause to 

 believe that the animal has a contagious disease, there is no 

 case against them. 



Complaint was made to the district police last summer of 

 a man in Melrose who buys old horses and takes them to his 

 place to kill. He bought two glandered horses in Boston, 

 one from Somerville and one from Chelsea, and took them 

 to Melrose to slauohter. A member of the commission 

 visited the place one day, after hearing of these cases, and 

 found a shanty in the woods, and the heads, necks and 

 shoulders of two old horses ; the hind quarters and loins 

 were gone. The owner was not at home, but his man said 

 the remains of the two horses were sold for fertilizer. Just 

 wdiy the hind quarters and loins of a horse make better fer- 

 tilizer than the rest is a problem to be solved; also, what is 

 done with them should be known. The district police 

 watched the establishment for awhile, and concluded there 

 was no case against him. He took another reported case of 

 glanders there a few days ago ; but, if he maintains he did 

 not know the horse had glanders, there is no case against 

 him. 



There is a man in Maiden who occasionally buys horses to 

 kill, in the same way. The horse taken from Somerville 

 to Saugus, where the two men now held for the court in 

 Salem sold him from one to another, was first taken to 

 Maiden; but the horse killer would only give $2.50 for 

 him, and one of the Saugus men offered $3, and took him 

 home. 



If there is no legislation to stop these irresponsible per- 

 sons handling diseased animals, there should be. Diseased 

 animals should all be sent to responsible rendering establish- 

 ments, and the proprietors of these plants should be required 

 by statute to report all such cases to the Cattle Commission. 



As glanders and farcy prevail over Massachusetts, and 

 every city and town forms a portion of the Commonwealth, 

 one general law relating to contagious animal diseases should 

 suffice for all ; special legislation is pernicious when not 

 needed, and it is to be hoped that it w^ill not be carried any 

 farther than it has l)een in regard to Boston. 



