No. 4.] CATTLE COMMISSIONERS. 457 



biscuit manufacturers or fertilizer factories. These men 

 pay a little more for a horse to kill than the renderers will ; 

 hence a good many worthless horses are sold to them, and 

 among these animals there are some suffering from glanders. 

 These animals are led out over the highway often by irre- 

 sponsible persons, who may water them at the public 

 watering troughs on the way out, or even sell a horse with 

 glanders to some other person than the killer, if they can 

 get a dollar or two more by so doing. 



No one would believe, who had not been out there, that 

 such a condition of affairs could exist, or such a community 

 be found, within ten or twelve miles of the State House, 

 and it reflects anything but credit upon the city whose 

 board of health allows it to continue. There seems to be 

 no legislation to reach these horse killers. It would be 

 wise to enact a law that all persons engaged in the occupa- 

 tion of killing horses shall have a license from the board of 

 health of the city or town where such business is carried on, 

 that such a license shall not be granted to any person or 

 firm which has not a suitable rendering plant, and wagon 

 for removing dead horses from owner's premises, a penalty 

 to be provided for any person or firm not having such a 

 license, and they should also be required by law to report 

 all cases of contagious disease, among animals received at 

 their establishments, to the Board of Cattle Commissioners. 



It might also be well to provide that any person who 

 knowingly buys a horse with glanders or farcy shall be 

 liable to the same penalty as the person who knowingly 

 sells such an animal, as now provided for in the law, — the 

 only exception being that a licensed renderer may purchase 

 such an animal for slaughter, if he wishes. 



Whether remunerating owners of glandered horses for 

 animals killed by the State would help to diminish the num- 

 ber of cases or not is an open question. If such a policy 

 were decided upon, it would require an annual appropriation 

 of $50,000 to $60,000 for some time. Certain it is that the 

 present condition of affairs is very serious, and the most 

 stringent measures for its eradication will l)c none too severe. 

 The Cattle Commission has done all in its power to mitigate 



