18 BULLETIN 539, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
be required. The department always is glad to furnish the carriers 
and others with suggestions and all the information it has as to the 
best, methods of handling live stock so as to comply with the terms of 
the law. Some of the larger roads already have sought such advice 
and have sent their traffic and operating officials, as well as expert 
engineers, to points where live stock are handled with the object of 
improving their methods and facilities. As a result they now give 
better treatment to the animals and violations of the law are reduced 
to the minimum. The department on a number of occasions has 
sent an inspector to feeding points in company with the railroad 
officials and given suggestions as to the construction of yards and 
their equipment. 
TEXT OF PRESENT LAW. 
AN ACT To prevent cruelty to animals while in transit by railroad or other means of 
transportation from one State or Territory or the District of Columbia into or through 
another State or Territory or the District of Columbia, and repealing sections forty-three 
hundred and eighty-sis, forty-three hundred and eighty-seven, forty-three hundred and 
eighty-eight, forty-three hundred and eighty-nine, and forty-three hundred and ninety 
of the United States Revised Statutes. 
Be it en-acted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States 
of America in Congress assembled. That no railroad, express company, car com- 
pany, common carrier other than by water, or the receiver, trustee, or lessee 
of any of them, whose road forms any part of a line of road over which cattle, 
sheep, swine, or other animals shall be conveyed from one State or Territory 
or the District of Columbia into or through another State or Territory or the 
District of Columbia, or the owners or masters of steam, sailing, or other ves- 
sels carrying or transporting cattle, sheep, swine, or other animals from one 
State or Territory or the District of Columbia into or through another State or 
Territory or the District of Columbia, shall confine the same in cars, boats, or 
vessels of any description for a period longer than twenty-eight consecutive 
hours without unloading the same in a humane manner, into properly equipped 
pens for rest, water, and feeding, for a period of at least five consecutive hours, 
unless prevented by storm or by other accidental or unavoidable causes which 
can not be anticipated or avoided by the exercise of due diligence and fore- 
sight : Provided, That upon the written request of the owner or person in cus- 
tody of that particular shipment, which written request shall be separate and 
apart from any printed bill of lading, or other railroad form, the time of con- 
finement may be extended to thirty-six hours. In estimating such confinement 
the time consumed in loading and unloading shall not be considered, but the time 
during which the animals have been confined without such rest or food or 
water on connecting roads shall be included, it being the intent of this act to 
prohibit their continuous confinement beyond the period of twenty-eight hours, 
except upon the contingencies hereinbefore stated: Provided, That it shall not w^ 
be required that sheep be unloaded in the nighttime, but where the time expires 
in the nighttime in case of sheep the same may continue in transit to a suitable 
place for unloading, subject to the aforesaid limitation of thirty-six hours. 
Sec 2. That animals so unloaded shall be properly fed and watered during 
such rest either by the owner or person having the custody thereof, or in case 
of his default in so doing then by the railroad, express company, car company, 
common carrier other than by water, or the receiver, trustee, or lessee of any 
of them, or by the owners or masters of boats or vessels transporting the same, 
