SLAUGHTERHOUSE REFORM - [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—Those of your readers who have worked unremittingly for years in the cause of Humane Slaughter owe you a big debt of gratitude for your practical help in ventilating the subject.
It is to public lack of imagination and the tendency to turn from anything disagreeable that we owe the length and toughness of- the struggle for reform. But what a delight it is to succeed; even -in a small way ! Only last week the Town Council of Si. Ives, Cornwall, decided to adopt the by-law (1908 Act, clause 9) making the stunning of animals before slaughter compulsory. This was due to certain propaganda work, and a representative deputation presenting a petition to the Mayor. The like could be done in every township if a little group of people showed determination and tact in the matter.
In intimate connexion is another abuse which is prac- tically unknown to the public. I allude to the too prevalent custom of allowing the presence of children in slaughter- houses. Not long since in a village school the head teacher told me how horrible it was that her scholars haunted the neighbouring slaughterhouse - where humane methods were not in use. She said it had it very bad effect on the tone of the school, and asked me to speak there and then to the worst offenders. We have since given this matter a certain amount of publicity in the local Press. Naturally neither slaughter- men nor children are talkative on the subject, and drawing the attention Of parents, teachers, and the public generally to it is salutary, and tends to discouragement. The witnessing of these hoirois in childhood is wholly pernicious, and their recollection in later years is often acutely painful.
Few are aware that there is a by-law available forbidding the presence of children under sixteen in slaughterhouses. It would be well if all Town and Rural Councils adopted it.—I St. Ives, Cornwall. (Hon. Sec. R.S.P.C.A.).
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