The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1902-02-18
BUTCHERS ADVERTISE FOR AGED
HORSES TO KILL.
SOLD FOR THE BEST BEEF
Diseased and Crippled Animals Not
Rejected, Says an Illinois
State Official.

~ SAAo NY ONNA "ioOdA w
ably startled by statements made b.
Rudolph M. Patterson. assistant stat
pure food commissioner, and it is prob
able there will be a temporary de
crease in consumption. Mr.. Patterson
says:
Diseased and old horses ar
slaughtered nightsly in Chicago ano
the product is placed upon the marke'
for consumers to relish as the bes,
grade of beef. The industry is a
thriving one Four places are in oper
alton under the cover of darkness O.
night. surreptitiously the principals
steal their way out before daylight
breaks, and in wagons closely covered
with canvas and bearing no name OF
other distinguishing mark sell horse
meat throughout the city. Denials of
this statement, no matter from what
source they come, are simple demon.
STATIONS of the ignorance of those
who SO speak.
"The simple traffic in horse meat is
not the worst of it. There is a traffic
in diseased horse meat, a traffic in the
flesh of ringed bone, spawned, injured
and affected horses without inspec-
ton of any kind, and with the
product consigned to the consumer as
beef under pretenses of the basest
character. It is time the people knew
something about this. I told the plain.
u~nvarnished truth in Aurora at the
convention of the Illinois Retail Mer-
chants association and I intend to
tell the truth about this frightful con-
dition of affairs again and as often as
any one questions me concerning it.
There are four places in this com.
munlty Where diseased horses are
slaughtered every night. One is we'll
within the city limits and the other
three are just outside the city limits
IN Cook county. They have their
agents scattered throughout the city
advertising for horses. Listen to these
advertisements and gain some idea of
how these folks operate:
Wanted-Old horses to kill. Will
CALI
Highest prices paid for horses to
XIII. Remove those not able to walk
with ambulance
'Wanted-All kinds of sore-footed
horses. Will CALI
'Wanted-Horses to kill; pay high
est prices; disabled removed with am.
bulance.'
Horses wanted for killing; am
bulance for disabled
Some people seem to think I am
treadlng on their corns. Well, I am
Q never mentioned the stock
yards or any packing institution con-
hected with the yards. Every time
this department institutes an inyesti-
cation there is somebody some place
along the line to throw a brick at the
presiding officials. I went out to Rock
ford and brough suit against the man.
a1acturers OF process butter. They
enlisted the aid of some influential
dlarymen. I was told the department
was running both the dairy industry
and the republican party in the bar
gam. These people sent 265 kilograms
and large delegations to the governor
emandln my scalp. as they express
ed 1T. Afterward, when they found
OUT what we were doing and came to
appreciate Il efforts. the State Diary-
mems association in convention as
sembled unequivocally indorsed our
work.
SThis department intends to pro-
tect the health of the public if it can,
but in this case it's hands seem to he
tied by a peculiar set of circum-
stances. The next avenue of protec-
ton open to us. then. is publication
OF the facts. When we begun our in
v~estfgation I went personally and
watched one of those slaughtering-
houses, and this is what I saw
after waiting for several hours, at
2 O'Clock at night there came a string
OF men leading lame. halt and diseas-
ed horses into this house. where they
were slaughtered. The horses were
the worst specimens of their kind I
ever saw. Twenty animals were led
up to the point of slaughter The
work continued for two hours. when
closely covered wagons were run out
Of the house and starte! toward the
center of the city. This was shortly
after 4 o'clock in the morning.
.From the reports I had received
| was given to understand that this
was of nightly occurrence, and to
prove this I madea second visit. The
same scenes were enacted, the same