Veterinary Science.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4389, 23 March 1909, Page 3

Veterinary Science.

’ THE SLAUGHTERIIS G AND - INSPECTION ACT. In his annual report just to hand Mr J. A. Gilruth, M.R.C.Y., F.R.S.E., Chief Veterinarian, thus deals with the above snbject: Only in so far as control of abattoirs and meat-export slaughterhouses, tof ether with inspection of meat therein, oes the operation of this Act come within my jurisdiction. Consequently the private registered slaughterhouses and their condition for which the Veterinary Division has possessed responsibility for nearly seven years—do not now come within the scope of this report. The bona.- fide - farmer exemption clauses of the Act still affect our administration, however, particularly regarding the sale of pigs within an abattoir district. At present the law is comtrned to mean that all cattle, sheep, and calves, the flesh of which is sold for human consumption within an abattoir district, shall be slaughtered (save in certain circumstances, where, however, Government inspection is still provided for) at the abattoir, whereas pigs need not necessarily be so treated. In other words, the law permits a farmer to kill pigs (up to a limit of five per week) and sell them to butchers for the purpose of retail within such abattoir district.

One wonld naturally assume that an abbattoir is erected for the primary object of safeguarding the interest of the consumer of meat; but how can this be contended when, though it is illegal to sell lamb and veal, for example—which aw notoriously free from disease—unless killed at the abattoir, yet it is legal for all the pork- the condition of which as 'regards health is notoriously the reverse (as already stated) —to be sold with absolutely no pretence at inspection ! It is often urged that farmers cannot convey or send pigs alive to abattoirs unless with the utmost difficulty. Even were this so, the excuse seems to be barely satisfactory from the point of -view of the meat-consumer But is it so ? Seeing that the largest bacon-factories—-those at Wellington and Woodville—kill #n occasions up to nearly four hundred pigs per day ; that many of these pigs have been drawn from as far as Taranaki, whence they are shipped by rail ; and that all farmers even there do not live adjacent to a railway-station, the. contention cannot be upheld. The ffifont position regarding pigs is distinctly anomalous. As I have so frequently urged it should be altered, and the fanner who desires to vend dead meat should be placed upon an equality •fldth the bona fide butcher, instead of on a favoured pedestal as he is now. By a pernsal of the section dealing with tuberculosis, the injustice of the present law, as it affects the consumer ©f pork, will at once become apparent-