The following is the clause of the Public Health Act 1875 which empowers an urban authority to establish public slaughter-houses (or “abattoirs“[223] as they are sometimes called) for the purposes of the district they govern:
“Any urban authority may, if they think fit, provide slaughter-houses, and they shall make bye-laws with respect to the management and charges for the use of any slaughterhouses so provided.
“For the purpose of enabling any urban authority to regulate slaughter-houses within their district, the provisions of the Towns Improvement Clauses Act 1847, with respect to slaughter-houses, shall be incorporated with this Act.[224]
“Nothing in this section shall prejudice or affect any rights, powers, or privileges of any persons incorporated by any local Act passed before the passing of the Public Health Act 1848, for the purpose of making and maintaining slaughter-houses” (38 & 39 Vic. c. 55, s. 169).
The great necessity for the establishment of one or more public slaughter-houses in any town can only fully be realised by persons who will take the trouble to inspect those which are private; they are generally placed near the shops of the butchers for the sake of convenience, the result being that they are situated in the central portions of the town and are thus surrounded by closely packed dwellings. The private slaughter house often consists of a stable or shed which has been converted into an ill-designed slaughter-house, badly paved, with imperfect drainage; they are frequently not sufficiently lighted, ventilated or drained, and are utterly unfitted for the purposes for which they are used.
Their position also is often so badly chosen that the children in the vicinity resort there to see the animals killed, and the poor beasts have in some cases to be driven through a narrow passage into the slaughter-house itself, where, trembling at the sight and smell of the blood and carcasses of its dead companions, it remains tethered until its turn comes to fall a victim to the blow of the slaughter-man: a blow which sometimes has often to be repeated before its object is attained, owing to the bad light and cramped surroundings of the place.
As these slaughter-houses are generally rented by the butcher using them at large rentals (such accommodation being scarce), it is not to be expected that he will spend much money to improve property which is not his own; but notwithstanding the loss of weight incurred by the animal to be slaughtered thus fretting and sweating in its terror, the damage to the meat by its being dressed in the same locality with the live beast, steaming and smelling in the vicinity, and the exorbitant rents demanded, still there are great objections always raised by butchers in towns to the establishment of public slaughter-houses. These objections are based by them on the following grounds:
They contend that the carriage of the meat from the slaughter-house to their shop deprives them of some of their profits; that slaughtering their animals in the presence of other butchers leads to disparaging remarks and trade jealousies, and that they sometimes are robbed of fat, tools, &c.
These arguments are groundless if the public abattoir is properly designed, is in a suitable locality, and is well managed.
There are no powers by which butchers can be compelled to abandon private slaughter-houses, and use those provided by the urban authority, so long as the bye-laws of the authority are not infringed; but as the law stands at present, private slaughter-houses may be licensed (10 & 11 Vic. c. 34, ss. 125, 126) or registered (10 & 11 Vic. c. 34, s. 127), and the only manner in which they could be closed (which would then compel the butcher to use the public abattoir) would be by putting the 129th section of the same Act in force, which states that the justices before whom any person is convicted of killing or dressing cattle contrary to the provision of the Act, or of the non-observance of any bye-law or regulation of the local authority, in addition to the penalty may suspend the licence for any period not exceeding two months; or in the case of the owner of any registered slaughter-house may forbid for any period not exceeding two months, the slaughtering of cattle therein. For a second or other subsequent like offence, in addition to the penalty the justices may revoke the licence or absolutely forbid the slaughtering of cattle in the particular house or yard. In such an event the local authority may refuse to grant any licence whatever to the person whose licence has been revoked, or on account of whose default the slaughtering of cattle in any registered slaughter-house has been forbidden.