DR. CAMERONasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Under what particular provision of the Cattle Diseases (Ireland) Acts the Irish Privy Council has in its Order, dated December 14th 1876, authorised veterinary inspectors to order cattle slaughtered because labouring under pleuro-pneumonia to be sold by Poor Law Guardians to the best advantage for human food, in case of the owners declining so to sell them; whether from the evidence in a case recently brought before the Blanchardstown Petty Sessions, it did not appear that under the Order a cow whose lungs weighed 52 lbs., and which was described by the medical officer of health of the city of Dublin as one of the worst cases of pleuro-pneumonia he had ever seen, was sold for human food by the Guardians of the North Dublin Union; and, whether he can say if a similar practice prevails in England and Scotland?
§ SIR MICHAEL HICKS - BEACHIn reply to the Question of the hon. Member, I have to state that besides the general power to appoint Inspectors and Valuers and to provide for the due execution of the Cattle Diseases Acts under 39 & 40 Vict. c. 51, s. 4, the power to regulate the disposal of the carcasses of cattle slaughtered under Orders in Council is conferred by 11 & 12 Vict. c. 107, s. 4, extended to Ireland by 29 Vict. c. 4, s. 1, and incorporated with the subsequent Cattle Diseases Acts down to and including the Act of 1876. Under these powers repeated Orders have been made relating to the subject. As to the second Question put to me by the hon. Member, I have to say that it appears, from the reports which have appeared in the newspapers, that the Inspector of the North Dublin City Union considered that the animal in question was fit for human food, and ordered the carcass to be sold. The case was subsequently brought before the magistrates, who disagreed in opinion, and it was dismissed without prejudice. In reply to the third Question an inquiry was made before the issue of the last Order by the Irish Privy Council as to what practice prevailed in Great Britain; and it was discovered that, generally speaking, in the case of animals slaughtered on account of their being affected by pleuro-pneumonia, it was the practice to utilize the flesh for food, unless the disease was so advanced as to render it unfit for consumption.