H.—3B

1907. . NEW ZEALAND.

ABATTOIR AT CHRISTCHURCH (REPORT OF THE ASSISTANT CHIEF VETERINARIAN ON).

Laid on the Table of the House of Representatives by Leave,.

Report. The Chief Veterinarian. sth August, 1907. As instructed, in order that the Hon. the Minister might be apprised of the true state of affairs at the Christchurch abattoir, I visited Christchurch on the 27th ultimo, and made an inspection of the place. The Christchurch Press of the 24th ultimo had published a long article reflecting seriously upon the structural and sanitary conditions of the abattoir yards and men's quarters. The points to which exception was taken in the newspaper article may be summarised as follows :— (1.) That two dogs were seen within the abattoir building, walking beneath hanging carcases of beef. (2.) That dressed carcases are hung for cooling purposes in the same apartment as is used for slaughtering, and that consequently unsavoury odours from the " disembowelling of cattle and manipulation of offal," and also the " nauseating fumes of hot blood" permeate (presumably to the detriment of the dressed carcases) the currents of air passing among them. (3.) That the blood-channel provided for beef-slaughtering purposes is wrongly situated, being too far distant from the spot where the blood is drawn from the cattle, and that, as a result, a large accumulation of coagulated blood is present on the concrete floor, it being described as " nearly" an inch in depth. It was also stated that in their dying struggles cattle " splashed this blood about in all directions." (4.) That the cattle and sheep pens and races appeared to be inconvenient. That there seemed to be great difficulty in getting sheep to travel up the inclined plane to the killing-place. That the concrete-paved cattle and sheep pens were unduly dirty ; that, though surrounded by concrete channels, the " filth" did not seem to escape into these. One entirely and one partially unpaved cattle-pen were stated to be very filthy. (5.) The fences and gates of the yards were said to be in a bad condition of repair. (6.) The sanitary and general arrangements of the men's quarters were taken exception to. After a thorough inspection of the entire premises on three separate days—viz., the 27th, 29th, and 30th ultimo —during which inspection I personally witnessed the processes of slaughtering both cattle and sheep, I came to the following conclusions : — 1. Begarding the fact of dogs having been seen within the abattoir building, there can be no doubt but that they were there. At the same time Ido not believe that this is a common occurrence. An abattoir by-law prohibits the presence of dogs on the premises, and the manager does his best to enforce this. It is obvious that when cattle, sheep, See., have to be worked dogs are necessary, and where several different individuals are engaged in this work a number of dogs are to be found around the premises. However, I was assured by the manager that, as in the past, every effort would be made to keep these animals out in the future. I may mention that personally I have no recollection of having ever seen a dog within this abattoir building.