Page:BehindtheScenesinSlaughterHouses.pdf/14

12 wooden partition, potatoes being peeled, and sausages being made."

"No. 6. An equally bad place. Very small sheep slaughter-house. Entrance through shop. One end used for lair. Here, in a space between 10 and 12 feet long by 4 to 5 feet wide fifteen large sheep were penned: panting very much from overcrowding: almost standing on each other's backs. No feeding or watering arrangements: indeed no room for it. No separate hanging place. Slaughter-house close to dwelling."

These extracts might be continued, but enough has now been said to show that almost every humane and sanitary principle is daily violated in these dens of cruelty.

Many attempts have been made at various times to introduce humanity into slaughter-houses. The efforts in this direction have been of two different kinds. Private individuals, out of a mere love of animals and dislike of the infliction of needless pain, have invented humane implements of killing, and have induced butchers to consent to give them a trial. Besides this, Parliament has passed Acts dealing with the public health, the indirect result of which would be, if carried out, to impose a certain check on slaughtering barbarities.

While the killing of large animals presents greater difficulties than the killing of small ones, such as sheep, pigs, and calves, it is with respect to the latter that the discovery of a painless system is most imperatively required.