§ MR. T. H. BOLTON (St. Pancras, N.)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Agriculture whether, when a 43 veterinary inspector orders a cow to be slaughtered as suffering from pleuro-pneumonia, and a post-mortem examination shows the animal not to be diseased, the owner is compensated to the full value of the cow; and when a veterinary inspector orders a horse to be slaughtered as glandered, and a postmortem shows that it is not glandered, has the owner a claim for the full value of the horse?
§ *MR. HERBERT GARDNERA veterinary inspector has no power to order slaughter either in pleuro-pneumonia or glanders. In pleuro-pneumonia, the power to slaughter rests absolutely with the Board of Agriculture, the compensation paid where the animal is not diseased being its value immediately before it was slaughtered. In glanders, the power to slaughter rests with the Local Authority. If disease be only suspected the consent of the owner is requisite, and if the animal is declared to be diseased the owner has a right of appeal to the Board of Agriculture before it is slaughtered. The compensation paid where the horse slaughtered is diseased must be not less than £2 and not more than one-fourth of its value before it became diseased. In every other case the value of the animal before it was slaughtered is payable.
§ MR. T. H. BOLTONDoes the right hon. Gentleman not see that there is an inconsistency in the practice followed in these two cases, and will he consider the propriety of adopting rules providing that the cases should be treated in the same way?
§ *MR. H. GARDNERI think my hon. Friend is trying to draw an analogy between cases that are not analogous.