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108
SEIZURE OF IMMATURE KIDS DRESSED AS RABBITS.
On the 28th March, 1904, a salesman in the Central Meat Market directed
the attention of one of our Meat Inspectors to the contents of a box invoiced
as " rabbits." These were at once submitted to your Medical Officer of Health,
who found that, although they were dressed in the manner rabbits are
usually prepared for market, they were unquestionably immature animals of
another kind. A further examination of these was made by a member of the
Royal Veterinary College, who pronounced them to be the carcasses of newlyborn
kids.
Although the sale of kids for rabbits was only a trade fraud, the fact
remained that these animals had practically never lived, having been killed at
birth for the sake of utilizing the mother's milk supply.
The use of flesh of newly-born animals of any kind being a disgusting
practice, and the meat in question being obviously improper for human food,
the carcasses were destroyed and the circumstances carefully investigated.
It was stated that the animals in question had come from the Continent,
and it was subsequently ascertained through the Netherlands Minister that
they were an experimental consignment from a small trader residing at
Baarle-Nassau, who, when examined by an official veterinary surgeon, by
instructions of the Director-General of Agriculture at the Hague, admitted
that he had intended to send a hundred weekly as long as a sufficient number
of newly-born kids could be had, but that as the first experiment had been a
failure "he found he had at once enough of it, and would never try the same
"thing again."
DISEASED PIGS FROM A PUBLIC INSTITUTION.
On the 11th January last your officer seized in the Central Meat Market
eight pigs, seven of which were in a very wet and emaciated condition, and
one badly spotted on the skin, and the glands on cutting were quite black.
These pigs were part of a consignment of 35 pigs sent to a firm of salesmen
by the authorities of one of the Royal Hospitals, and were accompanied by a
certificate of removal to market from a Veterinary Inspector to the London
County Council, who certified that ;he had seen the 35 pigs both alive and
after slaughter.
The Secretary of the Institution, in reply to enquiries, stated that the
animals had been slaughtered in consequence of an outbreak of swine fever
amongst them.