Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1900-11-16
SEEK IMPURE MEATS.
GOVERNMENT INSPECTS CATTLE
AT CHICAGO YARDS.

0SSCnNWCNi iNSTEC = CAI Il
AT CHICAGO YARDS.
Bcevcs. Hoss. Sheep and Calves arc Searche,
for Dissase-Risid Post and Ante Morten
Examination of Each Animal BY Lynx.Eye,
OffciaIs-Thsy Often Find Dangerous Infec
tons in Meat Food.
Few people have even the leas
knowledge of the great work done BY
the national government in inspecting
the killing OF cattle, hogs and sheer
at the Chicago stock yards. This in
spectien is being carried on in ths
stock yards of forty-eight other cite,
in the United States, but it is operated
on far greater scale in Chicago thar
at any other point. Such q SHARP
watch for diseased and Objectionable
animals is maintained that it is prac.
tically an impossibility for unfit meat,
designed for interstate or export ship.
ment, to leave the inspected slaughter.
houses at the yards. Every animal
killed receives two or three inspections
and when a diseased one is found the
carcass is guarded as carefully as a
box of jewclry until it is completely
destroyed, as fan as edible purposes are
concerned.
Two kinds OF inspection are given
every beef, hog or sheep that goes out
OF the yards as being fit to eat. These
examinations are antemortem and
postmortem. Sometimes the first
one alone is sufficient to bar out ami
mails and they never get as far as the
slaughtering pens. The antemortem
inspection, OF course, takes place con
the hoof" and is conducted just before
the animals are driven on to the scale.
to be weighed for purchase by the
packer from the stockman. The in
spector examines each animal rs it is
driven forward toward the platform OF
the scales. Any animal that is evi.
IDENTIFY affected with disease or is ema-
ciated is ordered cut out. The pack
er, of course, declines to buy an ami.
NAL which the inspector has declined
to pass, and the loss falls on the stock
man. But after this antemortem in
spection the animals become the prop
erty of the packer and all losses
through ultimate condemnation OF the
stock must, of course, fall upon him.
A sheep which bears on its skin
plain evidence of "sheep scab," hog
with large, red cholera splotches on
his hide, a steer with external tumors,
sores or assesses, or any animal
which exhibits the ordinary indica-
tions of illness, such as inability to
walk, etc, will be cut out. The law
requires that the refused animal must
be killed and turned into soap fat and
fertilizer.
The number of animals cut out at
the antemortem examination varies so
greatly that the inspectors decline to
strike an average on the number ex.
cluded per day. Thousands may be
passed without one being refused, but
in the next hundred 10 per cent. OF
more may be condemned. AS mat
ter of fact, however, many of the dis
eased animals pass the first inspection
without exciting the suspicion on the
part OF the inspectors, for they bear nc
exterior evidence whatever of the fact
that they are suffering from danger
GUS illness.
Passing this first inspection success
fully, the animals are weighed and
sent to the slaughter-houses OF the
company purchasing them. Hogs re-
ceive by far the most careful inspec'
ton. Two inspectors watch the pass
ing of the slaughtered hogs, while but
one examines cattle, and there is also
but one each for sheep and calves
The hogs are given the stricter exami
nation because OF their greater liabili
ty to disease and the greater danger to
be found in the incipient stages OF hog
diseases, and it, OF course, goes with
out saying that early stages of disease
in any animals are more difficult to
detect than those more advanced.
After going through the first opera
tions at the slaughter-house the hog il
strung up by the heels with hundreds
of others and passes forward in line
that seems endless. The device tc
which the animals are strung up i:
fitted with a small wheel which rolls
along single track. Not far from
the point where the hogs are frs,
strung up and only few feet from the
line of moving carcasses sits the first
of the hog inspectors. As each hog
passes in front of him workman
with two slashes of a knife removes
the entire viscera from the already
partially opened body of the hog and
throws them on a platform at the side
OF the raised chair in which the in
spector is sitting. Just above the
head Of the inspector and a little te
the rear is an electric lamp, which
throws a brilliant stream OF light
down on the platform.
Each time as the entrails are thrown
down the inspector glances down al
them. One glance is sufficient
Long, long practice at postmortems
and familiarity with normal viscera
enables the inspector to tell quicker
than the wink OF an eye if anything il
fba ,rotfor with tho hoo uhnea vita