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121
Abattoirs, and the principle has been confirmed by the London County
Council and twenty.five Metropolitan Borough Councils. It is also recommended
in the Report of the Royal Commission on Humane Slaughtering. The
Royal Sanitary Institute, the National Health Society, the Humanitarian
League, and other bodies have also supported this principle, and in my own
opinion, the substitution of public for private slaughterhouses is essential to
any system for the proper and efficient inspection of meat.
One of the obvious objections to private slaughterhouses is that slaughtering
of animals takes place in them at all hours, and it is therefore impossible to
properly supervise them. So far back as 1900 the Corporation came to the
decision that slaughtering in the City should cease, and it was at that time
referred to the Sanitary Committee to consider and report as to the best
means of getting rid of the existing slaughterhouses at Aldgate. Since that
time five slaughterhouses have been closed, and there are now only eight
remaining.
In support of their views, the Corporation have recently decided to abolish
the private slaughterhouses at the Market under their control at Islington,
and are now erecting in their place a public Abattoir on the most approved
system. This new departure offers a very favourable opportunity for the
Corporation to institute a system of marking all meat slaughtered there that
is found by their Inspectors to be wholesome, and is a step that would in all
probability be followed by every Municipality alive to modern requirements
where the public health is concerned. What can be carried out in our
Colonies—Canada for instance—can be equally well done, if not better, in
this country, and although one may expect to meet with strenuous opposition
on the part of the Trade, I have little doubt that in the end common sense
would prevail, and the interests of the consumer be studied rather than that
of the trader.
Interests of British Cattle Breeders considered.
The foregoing suggestion will, if adopted, greatly promote the interests of
British agriculturists. Anything that is likely to be of practical assistance
to a declining industry should receiVe the most careful consideration, and there
seems to be good reason to suppose that the public would be more likely to
give the preference to English beef bearing a mark that is not only a guarantee
that it was British produce, but also conclusive proof of its having been
inspected at the time of slaughter.
That British farmers are in need of such encouragement is shown in
the rapid decline that is taking place in the amount of both country and
town killed meat. It will be seen from the Table on page 125 that the
proportion of British country.killed meat delivered at the Central Markets has
fallen from 22.7 per cent. in 1903 to 17.2 per cent. in 1906, while that of
British town.killed has declined from 6.8 per cent. in 1903 to 3.4 in 1906.
There is every indication that the practice of official inspection and marking
of meat intended for export by foreign and colonial competitors to this country