The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-11-15
SICKLY CATTLE DUMPED INTO
 THIS STATE
Serious Allegation Is Made Against Laxity of Con-
 necticut Officials
Large Per Cent. of Cattle In Connecticut Said to Be Diseased = Co9pmissiorer Averill's Views.

It Is learned that tuberculosis has become so prevalent among cattle of this State that the agents of the gov ernment have made a suggestion which is now being seriously considered by the bureau of animal industry of the department of agriculture at Wash ington to prohibit the shipment of cat tie from Connecticut into other States. It Is stated by men prominent in. the cattle raising industry in this State that a large per cent. of stock here has been found to be diseased. Con- necticut has even now an unenviaDle reputation in this respect. and should the department of animal industry 1t would brand the Nutmeg State as a pariah. and would iniure the battle business here.
 This acute situation. according to General H. O. Averill. State Cattle Commissioner results not so much from any geographic or hygtenic con- ditions but chiefly because of the fail- ure of Connecticut to follow the lead of other States and pass laws demand ing the examination of cattle before their shipment into the State In most of the States of the East laws have been passed requiring this. and es the resul of the requirement. many of the cattle shipped to Pennsylvania, Massachusetts sand New York are turned back because of their condition. A great part of this stock which has been found unfit to ship to fbese other States has been sent into Connecticut because Of the lack of similar laws here
 As the result of these conditions this State has become practically the dump ing ground for the country and the diseased cattle e-from nearly every State in the East have been sent here- The percentage of cattle suffering from tuberculosis in Connecticut is so far ment officials have deemed 1t neces- sary to propose the regulation in ques- tion-
 General M. O. Averin has been fight ing the disease tooth and nail. but ow- ing to the peculiar conditions spoken of he has met with only mediocre success His agents are continually at work ex- arnining cattle and the number con- demned yearly for being infected with tuberculosis has reached a surprising figure.
 It is stated that the inspectors were in this vicinity recently, and that out of one herd of cattle nearly one-haf were condemned These cattle were nally it was found that a mistake had been made in only one case The owner was reimbursed for the healthy animal. has spread the disease to the home raised cattle. and it has been found that a few infected animals soon spreads the disease to a whole herd
 It was stated that an effort was made at the last session of the State Legislature to have a law passed re- uuiring the examination of cattle be- fore their admission into the State, but 1t was killed. It is claimed that the bill was defeated by the cattle dealers. who believed that 1t would seriously hamper their business. Should the proposed regulation pass 1t would serve to make Connecticut the dumping place for diseased cattle and would make it impossible to ship single head out unless it was heal thy.
 The regulation would. of course. not bar all cattle from being shipped but would demand a most rigorous exami- nation of each herd
 Meat and Milk Inspector A Carleton Knapp, b ". s.. of the Bridgeport 'T certainly agree with Commissioner Averill when he says that the State of Connecticut Is the dumping ground for diseased cattle. especially tuber- culous beef. The authorities of New York State are very careful about their meat arl milk and there is a lot of cattle condemned by them The re- suit is that much of the condemned meat gets into this section. Buyers from the vicinity go to New York and pick up what has been condemned as unfit for food in New York State -'It is hard to say just how much of 1t gets to Bridgeport This morning I condemned carcass which I found to be tuberculous- It had come from New York Without going over my records I could not tell exactly how much tuberculous meat has been con denned here. but there has been con- siderable. We can only keep a sharp lookout for it.