The San Francisco call., 1896-01-24
Delayed by Washouts, tht
Starving Birds Ate Each
Other.
TO BE SOLD FOR HUMAN FOOD.
Secretary Holbrook Says the Health
Department Grossly Neglects
Its Duty.

Arrests for cruelty of an unusual nature
are 10 be made at the instigation of the
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals. Chickens that had partially
eaten each other alive had been offered for
sale in Clay-street market. Secretary
Holbrook accuses the Health Department
Of gross negligence, as in addition to the
cruelty the case involves the sale for hu-
man food of what he considers little better
than carrion.
AS M. McCurray, assistant secretary of
the society, was passing the Clay-street
market yesterday afternoon he noticed a
number of coops of chickens being deliv-
cred from wagon at the stall of IL. Fo-
dera. The condition Of the birds was such
that he thought at first OF arresting Jacob
son, the teamsIer who was delivering the
consignment, but, deciding that it was
better 20 have witness, he telephoned
for Secretary Holbrook, who was soon at
the place. Speaking of it afterward MIR.
Holbrook said:
"It was the worst sight ever saw. The
! chickens were wounded, dead and dying
in the coops, many of them crushed and
choked to death. Some of them had been
| so crushed that the bones were shattered
were still alive, and others had had the
skin torn off their backs and necks, and
/ though they were breathing the other
famished chickens were pecking and eat
ing their live flesh. Some of the coops
| were upside down. with the crushed heads
/ hanging through the bars. 1t was case
! of the survival of the tittest, for some of
/ the birds that were crushed out of all SEM
| blanee TO a chicken in shape were still
/ alive.
/ "And that was intended for human
/ food. There was not bird there, alive or
dead, that was fit to eat. The chickens
/ that were not mutilated were parched and
! famished, and they had been so bruised
and terrified that they were all sick and
feverish and liable to make any one sick
who ate them. There were about fifteen
coops and they were heapinG the chickens
/ out of them, dead and dying, on the side
walk. | made them kill those that were
alive to end their sufferings.
1.-THE man at Fodera's stand said he had
not to pay for the mutilated chickens that
were dead. He had taken the consignment
! as it had come in from Oregon and would
only have to take the live ones. Throw
/ the dead chickens in hole he said TO the
1 boy. l don't know what kind of hole he
meant-a tamale hole, probably, for l no.
! ticed he gathered them up, dead and dying,
! all the same. You may be sure that he
| did not throw them away. People will eat
! those chickens, and it's shame that the
! Board of Health permits it, for they are
not fit for human food.
'The chickens arrived at Fourth and
Townsend from Oregon in palace car,
which holds about 1000 of them. They
were consigned to a firm on Battery street,
! the name OF which we do not know, but
we can easily discover that tomorrow.
| The man Jacobson, who was delivering
! them, claims that the car was delayed in
| Oregon by washout ana that the chick
! ems, in their hunger and thirst, tram pied
OH and crushed one another, but they
must have been too tightly pack Bed. There
| is supposed to be trough of water run
! ming beside each tray in the palace
chicken-cars, but half the time the men in
attendance are too negligent TO turn the
water on. We have often found cases of
coops of chickens arriving here with their
| throats as parched as a bit of dry leather.
"At Fourth and Townsend streets these
particular chickens were bundled out of
! the palace car into coops. Jacobson said
to me, Every one of the trainmen last
night wanted a chicken when they found
the state they were in What did they
want them forp [ asked. They were not
fit for food 1t seems, though, that the
tralnmen were willing to risk eating them.
"Fodera had apparently bought fifteen
coops of the consignment from the COM
mission agent, and as the business houses
were closed by the time we had got
through killing the wounded chickens, we
were obliged to defer further search till to-
morrow. We mean, however, to make a
test case of this chicken business and see
if we cannot make the men at this end re-
sponsible."
1t is Secretary Holbrook's opinion,
based on previous experience, that any
convictions the Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Animals can secure will
never put an end to the evil. "It is the
business of the Health Department" said
Mr.. Holbrook. 'If it would take charge OF
that kind of thing and appoint market
inspector like Dockery we should have NO
more of these cases of cruelty and carrion.
The Board of Health does not pay any
attention to what is gold in the markets
In the whole department there is but one
man who does his duty, and that is the
milk inspector. If the Health Department
would 'Dockery' the markets we shouId
not have any more barbarities of the kind
we discovered to-day