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36
premises to be affected. The portions seized were destroyed
upon the receipt of a Magistrate's Order.
The matter was reported to the Council, and it was decided
to request the owner to appear before the Council and give an
explanation of the circumstances.
This he did, and, after very careful consideration, it
was decided to caution him.
In this particular instance the animals were slaughtered
between 10 and 11 p.m. on the previous night, and frequently
killing is in progress at the various slaughter-houses at 8
o'clock in the evening; and although visits are often paid in
the evening as well as in the day-time, it is obvious that the
inspection under the system of private slaughter-houses is
far from perfect, such as is the case where butchers all
slaughter in a public abattoir under the constant supervision
of the Health Department.
The provision of a public abattoir for Barnet may be
considered impracticable at the present time. This depends
entirely upon the point of view as to whether it should be
made a public health question or a commercial one. One
thing is certain—that the public must run the risk, which is
not an infrequent one, of conditions such as I have described
above, so long as the system of private slaughter-houses
exists.
On another occasion I received information that a beast
which was very emaciated had been slaughtered on unlicensed
premises early in the morning, and was being conveyed into
the town. As my information was very imperfect I had some
difficulty in tracing the matter. After instituting enquiries I
visited certain stables, but found them locked. The occupier,
who saw me enter the yard, had disappeared when I came out
to require admission to the stables. I accordingly set a trap
for him, the result of which I found him hiding in a lane near.
Upon seeing me he ran away. I caught him, and on gaining
admission to the stables I found the hide, but not the carcase.
The occupier, in reply to my question, said it had gone to the
knacker's yard. To satisfy myself that the carcase had not
gone for human food, I proceeded to the only two yards within
some miles of the town and found that this information was
untrue. A few days latter I received information from which
there was very little doubt that the carcase had gone for
human food to a district a few miles away, and it is very
probable that this carcase was affected with some organic
disease.
The difficulties of dealing with this illicit meat traffic are
very great, and necessitates long watching of the class of
persons who deal in " slink " meat.