View report page

156
ting that horse-flesh is sold there. Horse-flesh may not be
supplied for human food to any purchaser who has asked to be
supplied with other meat than horse-flesh, or with some compound
article of food (e.g., sausages) which is not ordinarily made of
horse-flesh (sec. 2). The Medical Officer of Health, or Inspector
of Nuisances, or other officer of a local authority appointed for
the purposes of the Act, may at all reasonable times inspect, &c.,
meat, which he has reason to believe to be horse-flesh, exposed for
sale, &c., and intended for human food, in any other place than a
horse-flesh shop, &c., and if it appears to him that such meat is
horse-flesh, he may seize it so as to have it dealt with by a justice
as the Act provides (sec. 3). A search warrant may be granted
by any justice, on the complaint made on oath by a Medical
Officer, &c., enabling such officer to enter any building, other
than a horse-flesh shop, &c., in which he suspects that there is
kept or concealed horse-flesh, intended for food, &c.; and such
horse-flesh may be seized and carried away to be dealt with by a
justice as the Act provides (sec. 4). If it appears to any justice
that any meat seized, as aforesaid, is horse-flesh, he may make
such order with regard to the disposal thereof as he may think
desirable: the person in possession of it, or on whose premises
the meat was found, will be deemed to have committed an offence
under the Act, unless he proves that such meat was not intended
for human food, contrary to the provisions of the Act (sec. 5).
The penalty for every such offence is not to exceed twenty
pounds. The onus of proving that the meat was not intended
for sale for human food rests upon the person exposing it for sale
(sec. 6). "Horse-flesh" includes the flesh of asses and mules,
and means horse-flesh, cooked or uncooked, alone or accompanied
by, or mixed with, any other substance (sec. 7). For this Parish
your Vestry are the local authority for the purposes of the Act
(sec. 8). The Act came into force on the 29th September, but
hitherto no shop has been opened in Kensington for the sale of
horse-flesh for food of man.