Omaha daily bee., 1906-06-13
CITY FOOD LAWS TOO WEAI
Permit Any Kind Of Neat and Animals to
Be Brought In.
ASSERTION OF THE VETERINARIAN
RsmacciOtti says Section Cut Ont of
the Ordinance should ne RE-
stored 60 make Law
Effective.


before the general council committee Mon
day afternoon to make a statement with
reference to the agitation for better
meat and food inspection demanded by the
butchers and grocers' associations. He
admitted the present methods are not
thorough and declared that a special In
spector, equipped with horse and buggy.
should be authorized to look after all edi-
bles except meat. The latter. ne con-
tended, should be taken care Of by the
combined city veterinarian and meat in
spector. as at present. but he urged that
existing ordinances be strengthened to
sive that ofieer more power and wider
Jurisdiction.
Chairman Bedford asked the veterinarian
TO make a memorandum of his suggestions
and hand it to Assistant City Attorney
Dunn, who has charge OF the new food
inspection regulations.
Ordinance Change to suit.
DR.. Rsmacciotu complained that two
years ago during the packing house strike
the meat inspection ordinance had been
emasculated to permit local butchers to
bring animals into the city for slaughter
ing. The ordinance in it's original form
had been as good as that in force in any
city of the country, he contended. As
amended It made the charge that Omaha
is the dumping ground for flesh OF all
kinds partly true.
You can bring anything you want In
the way Of meats or animals into Omaha
now" he said. THE section that was cut
out Of the ordinance certainly should be
restored. We have no adequate way of
getting at the slaughterers or purveyors
Of bad meat"
He told OF his exertions in running down
men in Benson and elsewhere who made
a practice Of slaughtering horses and sell
ing the dressed meat to saloons and other
sources and OF handling "downers" and
'cripples." .
Sure of ThOrOugh Inspections.
He said that up to a year ago. when he
suffered a serious personal misfortune. he
felt sure he had made a very thorough
and efficient inspection OF meats in the
wholesale districts. Up to the last month
he had been more or less incapacitated
and had left most OF the inspecting to
Marketmaster Gerke. DR.. Ramaciotti said
it had been his custom to spend two or
three hours In the morning In the COM
mission district and to examine the whole
sale meat and. FISH markets on Tuesdays
and Fridays He had made an effort to
discover all bad fruits and vegetables, and
this year had condemned something like
300 to 400 asess of Strawberries. He had
never seen any produce dragged on the
ground in the slime and refuse as re-
ported. 1t was specially dihicult, he as
serted. to discover UNIT canned goods OF
other products IN wholesale groceries and
he had to rely largely on tips OF pro-
posed sales OF goods at less than cost
prices to run down things of the kind
and make condenmations.
Where the Meat Came From.
With reference to the quantity of meat
said to have been rejected at Council Bluns
and brought to Omaha not long ago, DR.
Rammacciotti said this was an error; thai
1t had come from Kosher" market and
sent to both Omaha and Council Bluffs, the
inspectors in each city rejecting and de-
stroying It,. g..
In response to question from Council
man Jackson asking IL ANY sensible busi'
ness man" could not inspect meat with a.
| good results as a veterinarian. the officei
said not. He said that all OF the larg(
cities require inspectors to be veterinarians
and that meat inspection was a branch oi
the science as now taught. He explained
that he treated the horses in the fire anC
police department as well as inspected
meats and other foods. He denied state
ments he said he had heard been made thai
he received his meat free from the packers
or stood in" with them. He bought meat
for his own use at the wholesale markets
but declared he always paid for it and tha
the books OF the wholesale houses would
so show. Retailers had offered to give hin
meat for nothing. but he had refused, HI
asserted.
With reference TO statements that he haS
not visited certain markets for n long time
he said this was true, as he had founc
some places conducted by men with d higl
sense OF personal responsibility. He ha,
satisfied himself that these places wer,
properly conducted and devoted himself t,
markets where there were well-groundet
reasons for suspicion. He had never at
tempted to inspect grocery stores, but h
believed that all meat markets and gro
ceries should have regular inspections.
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