788 
SENATE BILL 1552 . 
tagious pleuro-pneumonia. This would be a final and unanswerable test, but no such 
test can be secured. They have limited experimentation upon animals in Great Britain 
by law. Objections have been raised to such an experiment, and this question cannot be 
brought to a final issue. If the bill under discussion should unfortunately become a law, 
an experiment could not be made at the seat of the United States Government to settle 
this important question, even shonld it become possible for other reasons to make the ex¬ 
periment here. The experiment would be calculated to give pain; it would not be an 
inoculation experiment, or a surgical procedure, and, consequently it would be necessary, 
according to this bill, to keep the animals in the experiment, say twenty head of cattle, 
completely under the influence' of ether or chloroform for the three or four weeks during 
which the animals might feel more or less pain. Such a requirement is absurd and im¬ 
possible of fulfillment. 
This is not an unusual or overdrawn case. It is only an illustration of contested or 
unsolved questions frequently coming before this department for solution, and which it is 
of the greatest importance to the agricultural industry to have settled reliably and per¬ 
manently. 
Another great work which the Bureau has done by experimenting upon animals is the 
elucidation of the nature, the mode of dissemination, and the means of preventing the 
disease known as Texas fever of cattle. This disease was causing enormous losses to 
farmers by death of their stock, was demoralizing the cattle industry of a number of West¬ 
ern States and Territories, and was causing such fatality among cattle en route to foreign 
countries that the propriety of admitting our animals was questioned, and insurance during 
the summer months was advanced to io per cent, of the value of the animals. Now all 
of this has been changed. Outbreaks of Texas fever in this country are rare and unim¬ 
portant, and the insurance on export cattle has been reduced to I per cent, or less. 
These are only a small part of the results accomplished by the Bureau of Animal In¬ 
dustry through its kind of experimentation. wSuch researches are difficult, and they are 
only successfully conducted where the conditions are favorable and where the investigat¬ 
ors are stimulated by friendly encouragement and support. It may be safely said that 
under hostile legislation, classifying such experiments as a form of cruelty, surrounding 
them with numerous limitations and restrictions, subjecting the experimenter to the espion¬ 
age of intolerant inspectors and threatening him with excessive penalties for infractons of 
any of the many requirements, the success which we now point to with pride would not 
have been achieved. 
There are still many problems relating to animal diseases which must be investigated 
and solved by this class of experiments before the animal industry can yield to our iarmers 
an adequate return. Agriculture demands and should receive all the assistance which 
can be given to it by the most advanced scientific methods employed under the most favor¬ 
able conditions. We find to-day many of the dairy herds affected to the extent of 70 to 
90 per cent, with tuberculosis; we find the swine fed upon the refuse milk of such dairies 
affected with the same disease, and we have every reason to believe that much of the 
tuberculosis in people comes from the same source. Is the Bureau of Animal Industry to 
be interrupted and hampered in its study of this and other diseases by legislation alleged 
to be for the prevention of cruelty to animals when the promoters of this legislation have 
failed to show that any improper experimentation has been conducted or is likely to be 
conducted in the District of Columbia? 
Are the vital interests of agriculture in the whole United States to be made subservient 
to the demands of an over-zealous and intolerant local society, which appears incapable 
of taking a broad and liberal view of this subject? Are we prepared, in order to protect 
a few dogs, cats, and other animals, from sufferings less than these animals usually un¬ 
dergo when they die a so-called natural death, to have legislation enacted which would 
withdraw the efforts of the scientists who are working for the relief of the hundreds of 
thousands of men, women, and children who now die annually in this country from pre¬ 
ventable diseases? Are the millions of animals which suffer and die from animal plagues 
everyyear less worthy of attention than the few which die with less pain in the research 
laboratory ? These qnestions appear not to have occurred to those who are advocating 
this legislation. The effort to limit, obstruct, and prohibit such experiments, although it 
originates from humane societies, is not in the cause of true humanity. It ignores the in¬ 
terests and sufferings of mankind and would perpetuate these sufferings to carry into effect 
