HUMANE CASTING
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sic,—While I fail to follow Mr. Emanuel in his letter of April 13th, I am in full agreement with Mr. Weinberg's claim that a real test of the Weinberg Humane Casting Pen has not yet taken place, except the one held recently by the Hobday Committee at Leeds. In 1924 the idea only was demonstrated with a wooden model, so that the experts might advise the inventor as to whether the idea was worth developing. Their verdict was that " Mr. Weinberg has brought them on the way to humanity towards animals." (This term was quoted by Col.' Dunlop-Young at the time, and Councillor Billington, a member of the Executive of the National Federation of Meat Traders' Associations, even proposed that a fund should be established for the purpose of enabling Mr. Weinberg to develop his idea into a commercial proposition.)
Referring to the alleged test of 1928, the inventor described it (in the Jewish World) as the "Islington affair" and not the Islington test, and appealed to Anglo-Jewry to give him facilities to test, his invention. Mr. Emanuel further asks " Why should the Shechita Board be continually nagged, when they were so- generous and have paid the expenses for the 1928 test " (or affair ?). I appreciate anyone paying for funeral expenses to provide a decent funeral for a poor person, 'but I certainly do not appreciate such generosity when the funeral was staged so as to make sure that a -burial should take .place, whether the person is alive or dead.' The whole arrangement seems to have been made so as to ensure
the burial of this humane invention ; and if the inventor did not possess such grit and stamina, buried the invention certainly would have remained. I doubt if Mr. Emanuel, who gave us his assurance that the Admiralty tests were not " window dressed," can give the same assurance that the 1928 so-called Islington test was not ," window dressed " for the purpose of showing the Pen at its worst before the Committee of Experts.
I am looking forward to the May test at London, bearing in mind that the machine has now been tested by the Hobday Committee at Leeds in a slaughterhouse not so favourably situated as Islington ; and the time recorded was fiff seconds per animal with two slaughtermen. How many seconds will it take at Islington a full gang of trained men in an up-to-date abattoir ? At Leeds in 55 minutes six animals were dealt with on a single tackle. How many will Islington handle with a double tackle ? It is not the Weinberg Pen that will be tested at Islington, but the good faith of all connected with Islington.
Finally, I must continue to be at variance with Mr. Emanuel. I consider the present method of Casting exceedingly cruel, and I do not claim to be a professor. I am a practical butcher of thirty years standing, who kills bovine each week, and I am entitled to claim that I can tell whether an animal is suffering or not, even if its horns are not broken or its head not battered during the process of Casting. Bellowing, bucking, and other acrobatic acts, tell only too plainly that they are not done by the animal simply to amuse us, they are caused by fright and pain.—I am, Sir, &c., E. MASON (Past President, Leeds and District Pork Butchers' Association). 73 Meadow Road, Leeds.
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