DISEASED MEAT by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 24, 1888

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 14, No. 33.

DISEASED MEAT.

By Editor

PROBABLY in no country in the world is the consumption of meat any greater or more general than in the United States. We are a nation of meat eaters, and not only so but we are exceedingly careless of the quality of the flesh which we consume; if the meat is tender and sufficiently fat, the average American asks no questions, and in fact he counts as his enemy anyone who would say aught to destroy his relish for his juicy steak or appetizing roast. So long as the meat "tastes good," most people do not care to know anything about the animal from which it is carved; and hence in most of our cities rigid inspection of animals to be slaughtered for food is not insisted upon. Is it any wonder then that unscrupulous dealers market immense quantities of meat which is utterly unfit for food?

There is probably not a city in the United States in which meat is not sold every day that is utterly unfit for food, because of the diseased condition of the animals which have been slaughtered to make it. Occasionally the subject is agitated, and a few head of cattle, sheep, or hogs are destroyed, but the whole thing is soon forgotten, and people keep right on eating their meat and asking no questions because of sheer indifference. Some two years ago it was discovered that diseased cattle were being shipped into San Francisco and there slaughtered for food. We believe that a few head were destroyed, but does anybody suppose that the same thing has not been done since? Certainly it has; there is not a city in the Union where it is not the regular practice of dealers to sell meat that they would not think of eating themselves. The following from the St. Louis Republican throws a little light upon the methods of the cattle men in St. Louis and Chicago, and it is certain that things are not one whit better on the Pacific Coast:—

"In the absence of proper inspection laws, the traffic in diseased meat is carried on openly as a legitimate business. Not only are the injured and sick cattle (from ten to twenty a day) in the East St. Louis yards sold for consumption, but it is stated on the authority of one of the parties to the transactions, that car loads of cattle known to be affected with the fatal and infectious Texas fever, are sold at a discount to be shipped to Chicago and there made into dressed beef for the markets controlled by the Chicago syndicate. No matter how foul or infectious the disease with which the animal is afflicted, it finds ready sale, and loose inspection makes it easy to dispose of its meat to the unsuspecting consumer. Our local columns give enough and more than enough of the disgusting details of the traffic to leave no doubt that its evils are increasing, and that the existing system of inspection is altogether ineffectual to check the "inspection 'on the hoof'—that is, before the animals are slaughtered—and the abattable, large cities, might not completely be the same evils, but they would certainly be the open sale of diseased animals for food. Indirectly the system of inspecting the living animals would restrict the Chicago syndicate in its efforts to control the beef market of the country, though, of course, no State or city could legislate with such an end directly in view. The power in the States to inspect food and to prevent the fraudulent sale of articles unfit for food is unquestioned, and when there is reason to believe that such fraudulent sale is carried on systematically on a gigantic scale it is time to call in the police."

Yes, it is time to call in the police; and it is also time to leave off wholesale meat eating and to learn to live on the fruits and grains so bountifully provided by a beneficent Creator; but there is little hopes of the American people doing either, to any very great extent.

Occasionally the laws, such as we have, may be invoked to punish here and there a dealer in dressed disease, but our laws are too lax, and as a people we are entirely too easy-going to deal out the full measure of justice to such offenders, and too much given over to appetite to refuse that which suits our taste, even if it is unwholesome.