40 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
No. 8.— The Humane Destruction of Animals. By D. D. SLADE, 
M. D., Professor of Applied Zodlogy. 
TuIs essay is intended to give instruction to those who desire to 
terminate the existence of animals in the most speedy and humane 
manner, whether such animals are intended for food, or whether they 
have become useless through age, sickness, or other cause. When 
we reflect upon the vast number of animals which are put to death 
in our own country alone, for food, estimated at more than fifty 
millions every year, not to speak of the thousands that are de- 
stroyed for other reasons ; and when we bear in mind that a great 
proportion of these animals are put to death often with the most 
needless cruelty, simply through ignorance of the proper method 
of producing speedy death,—it will be readily admitted that an 
attempt to enlighten the public in this respect may at least serve 
to diminish the amount of such cruelty, and indirectly lead to other 
equally satisfactory results. While we write more especially for the 
farmer, who is from circumstances obliged to slaughter his own ani- 
‘mals, and for those who are called upon reluctantly to rid them- 
selves of some fond but disabled pet, we also desire to call the at- 
tention of those who pursue the slaughtering of animals as a business 
to the great necessity of doing their work in the most humane man- 
ner possible. To this end, there are certain measures of importance 
to be kept in view, and to be carried into practice. 
Thus, the animal to be slaughtered should be conducted to the 
spot selected as quietly as possible, without the use of goad or club, 
and everything calculated to alarm him should be removed. All 
slaughtering premises should be kept thoroughly cleansed from blood 
and offal, and no carcasses be allowed to hang in view. No animal 
should be permitted to witness the death of another. Trifling as 
these measures may appear to the professional butcher, they are in 
‘reality of vast importance, not only in view of avoiding useless 
cruelty, but as affecting the, wholesomeness of meat for food, and 
the market value of the animal slaughtered ; there being no question 
as to the effects of torture, cruelty, and fear upon the secretions, and 
if upon the secretions, necessarily upon the flesh. 
