The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1906-10-02
BAD MEAT
INVESTIGATION
Attorney-GeneraI Fits Sends
Report to Governor.
COMMISSIONERS WERE LAX
Governor Bell Comments Work
Of Commissioners But Fires
Veterinary Rich.

vctctHidiy Mill.
Attorney General Clark G. Fits has
submitted his report TO Gov. Bell rel
alive to the alleged sale of diseased
meat After resume of the statutes
under which the cattle commission has
operated, the attorney general des-
cribes the manner In which condemned
cattle have been disposed of. After
the enactment OF the law OF 1894 1t be-
came customary to ship the condemn
ed cattle through drover to the New
England Dressed Meat and Wool CON-
pany at Somerville, MASS. THE New
England Dressed Meat aud Wool Co.
is slaughtering and commission
house. Its business largely is taking
animals on consignment, slaughterlng
them and disposing OF the carcasses
and hides taking for its own pay the
offal, and paying the consignor the
net amount received for the carcass and
hide. The evidence shows that the
condemned cattle OF the state of YER
mont which have been shipped to that
plant, have been handled in the same
manner as the consignments from pri-
vate individuals. Several drovers
about the state have handled the con-
demned cattle for the state in this way
among them M. G. Rowell of Ran
dolph, B. FL. Combs of East Berkshire,
w. A. Kicker of st Johnsbury, Fred
Savage or Windsor and others. The
condemned animals have been mixed
with shipments of the drovers in many
instances.
The state has paid the drover So per
head commission for shipping cattle
and looking after and turning over
remittances, the drover ps ying the
freight. 1t has netted the drover from
twenty five cents to dollar head
profit, and in some instances little
more than dollar.
shortly after the shipment off cat
tie TO Mass lchuetts commenced, in
the manner above cited, the manager
of the Burlington Rendering Co., at
Burlington, L. E. Brigham, approach.
ed DR. f. A. Rich, OF the commission.
and asked him TO turn some of the
state cattle into that concern saying
that they, the Rendering company,
would give what they were worth, and
thereupon the commission commenced
to ship some of the condemned cattle
to the Rendering company at Burling-
ton. There is nothing to identify the
cattle which went to the Burlington
plant, and nothing to show how many
of them were for food purposes and
how many for fertilizer. The testi-
mony is conflicting upon the latter
point, but it is evident that a large
portion of the cattle taken TO the Bur-
lington plant was sold for food pur
poses.
The way the matter is claimed to
have been handled is this: the cattle
are slaughtered and sided, some of
the internal organs being left attached
to the carcass; they are hung on a
track to await the inspection of Doctor
Rich, he comes and inspects them,
making record of the post mortem OF
each carcass, which is supposed to be
numbered to correspond with the num-
Der of the creature as it Is slaughter
ed. Those which he finds diseased on
post norton are slashed with knife
to indicate condemnation and are
taken to the rendering tank and put in
the fertilizer; the others are sold for
food purposes. Doctor Rich testifies
that he has sometimes seen TO 1t that
the cattle marked as diseased have
been put into the rendering tank for
fertilizer, but that he has no practice
about this, and is not able to lcok
after 1t in all cases, so that the result
is that the matter is practically in the
hands of the management of the Rem
dering company.
In his report the attorney general
recommends the appeal of the section
limiting prosecution to six mouths
after the alleged offence has been COM
mitted
In connection with the investigation
Gov Bell has made public staten mt
in which he commends the general
course of action of the commission as
regards the disposal of condemned
cattle to the Somerville plant. The
dealings with the Swift plant at Bur-
lington where there is no government
inspector the governor says would
not under any condition aid in estab-
fishing the good reputation of the
cattle commission.
The governor condemns the veteri-
nary of the commission DR. II. A. Rich
and declares his Office to be vacant.