§ MR. JEFFREYS (Hampshire, Basingstoke)I beg to ask the Vice Chamberlain why the Privy Council does not order compensation to be paid to persons whose horses or mules are compulsorily slaughtered to prevent the spread of glanders and other infectious diseases, in the same manner that compensation is now paid to persons whose cattle or pigs are slaughtered to prevent the spread of disease?
THE VICE CHAMBERLAIN (Viscount LEWISHAM, Lewisham)The only disease (other than rabies) for which horses and mules, under existing Orders of Council, can be ordered to be slaughtered is glanders. The provisions which require slaughter in the case of glanders in horses and mules are different from those which relate to diseases of cattle and pigs, inasmuch as the owner of the horse ordered to be slaughtered may prove to the Court before whom he is summoned that the horse is not affected with glanders, or that the slaughter is for any reason unnecessary or inexpedient. The disease of glanders is considered to be incurable, and as a horse or mule affected with that disease has no great commercial value, it is considered to be to the interest of the owner that the animal should be killed as soon as possible after the disease is recognized.