(17.) Lofts for straw and hay; the former should be provided free by the corporation, the latter on payment of so much per diem for each beast.
(18.) The necessary urinal and w. c. accommodation.
With regard to the provision to be made for storing the dung and waste refuse from public slaughter-houses, I am strongly of opinion that there should not be any fixed receptacle for such matters, but that covered carts should be provided, which could stand in convenient positions and be removed every day, a fresh and clean cart being substituted at once for the one removed; by this means all nuisance is avoided.
Speaking of public abattoirs, in a recent lecture on Industrial Nuisances, Dr. C. W. Chancellor, of the Maryland State Board of Health U.S.A., gives some advice on the management of slaughter-houses. He says: “During the process of slaughtering as much care as possible should be taken to prevent the discharge of blood or other animal matter upon the floor of the slaughter-house, upon the surrounding earth, or into an open stream. The contents of the viscera should, with the blood, offal and other garbage, be placed in impervious, covered, moveable receptacles, constructed of galvanized iron or other non-absorbent material, and removed from the premises without undue delay. Where hides or skins are necessarily retained for a day or two before they can be removed, they might without injury be advantageously brushed over on the fleshy side with a solution of carbolic acid or some other antiseptic. Fat should be freely exposed to the air in a cool place. As soon as the slaughtering is completed the whole slaughter-house, floor and walls, should be thoroughly washed. All the vessels and implements used in the slaughtering should be kept clean and sweet. Deodorizers may sometimes be used with advantage.”
There can be no doubt that whereas private slaughter-houses are frequently a most injurious nuisance to the neighbourhood in which they are placed, owing to their situation and construction, and a visit to one of them is likely to give a strong impetus to vegetarianism, the public abattoir, on however large a scale, if properly constructed and managed, need be no nuisance whatever, and every town in the kingdom should endeavour to obtain one, not only on account of the nuisance caused by private slaughter-houses, but for the incentive which is given to butchers to abstain from slaughtering diseased or unwholesome animals, the prevention of cruelty, and the material benefits derived in a proper establishment for the best methods of dressing the meat.
[223] The word “abattoir” is a French word from “abattre” to fell, it is used in this country to designate a group of slaughter-houses.
[224] The clauses referred to are contained in 10 & 11 Vic. c. 34, and are ss. 125, 126, et seq.; they refer to the registration, licensing and management of private slaughter-houses, and need not be commented upon here.
[225] An ordinary beast is said to lose 3 cwt. in weight in a journey from Edinburgh to London.
[226] The pole-axe should be of the American pattern, which has a head hollow and very sharp round the periphery. The practise is, after the blow is struck and the animal felled, to plunge a thin cane into the wound, which passes down the spine, causing instantaneous death whilst the animal is lying stunned.