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(1.) Any medical officer or sanitary inspector or any veterinary surgeon appointed in that behalf by the local authority may at all reasonable times enter any premises within the district of the local authority, or search any cart or vehicle in order to inspect and examine and may inspect and examine
the proof that the same was not exposed or deposited or in course of transmission for any such purpose, or was not intended for the food of man, resting with the person charged; and if any such animal or article appears to such medical officer or sanitary inspector or veterinary surgeon to be diseased, or unsound, or unfit for the food of man, he may seize and carry away the same himself or by an assistant, in order to have the same dealt with summarily by a sheriff, magistrate, or justice.Provided that in the case of any proceeding under this section with regard to a living animal the medical officer or sanitary inspector, sinless he is himself a qualified veterinary surgeon, shall be accompanied by a veterinary inspector or other qualified veterinary surgeon.
The police force of each area shall have power to search carts or vehicles, and to assist generally in executing and enforcing this section.
(2.) If it appears to a sheriff, magistrate, or justice, that any animal or article which has been seized or is liable to be seized under this section is diseased, or unsound, or unfit for the food of man, he shall condemn the same, and order it to be destroyed or so disposed of as to prevent it from being exposed for sale or used
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for the food of man; and the person to whom the same belongs or did belong at the time of sale or exposure for sale, or deposit, or transmission for the purpose of sale, or of preparation for sale, or in whose possession or on whose premises the same was found, shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding fifty pounds for every animal or article, or if the article consists of food, vegetables, corn, bread, or flour, for every parcel there if so condemned; or where the proceedings are before a sheriff, at the discretion of the court, if it finds that he has knowingly and wilfully committed the offence, without the infliction of a penalty, to imprisonment for a term of not more than three months with or without hard labour, and also to pay all expenses caused by the seizure, detention, or disposal thereof:
Provided that the veterinary inspectors appointed by local authorities under the Contagions Diseases (Animals) Act 1878 to 1886, or the veterinary surgeons appointed by local authorities under the first subsection of this section of this Act, shall be bound, when called upon, on receipt of a fee to be fixed by the local authority, to examine and pass or condemn, in whole or in part, animals alive or dead which are sent to any licensed slaughterhouse in the district of such local authority, provided that no animal shall be sent dead for such examination unless it be sent as a whole carcass with lungs, heart, and the lining membranes of the chest and body cavities attached and the other organs all complete, and so disposed that the inspector may be able to satisfy himself that they are the organs of the animal so sent; and the certificate of such inspector passing such animal or portion of an animal shall exempt the owner thereof from the penalties of fine and imprisonment in respect of any complaint regarding the condition of such an animal or portion of an animal at and for a reasonable time after the granting of such certificate.
(3.) Where it is shown that any animal or article liable to be seized under this section and found in the possession of any person was purchased by him or consigned to him from another person for the food of man, and when so purchased or consigned was in such a condition as to be liable to be seized and condemned under this section, the person who so sold or consigned the same shall be liable to be brought to trial in the district in which such animal or article was seized, and on conviction to the penalty and imprisonment above mentioned, sinless he proves that at the time he sold or consigned the said animal or article he and the person acting on his behalf, if any, did not know and had no reason to believe that it was in such a condition.
(4.) Where a person convicted of an offence under this section has been within twelve months previously convicted of an offence under this section, the sheriff, magistrate, or justice may, it he thinks fit, and finds that the offender knowingly and wilfully committed both such offences, order that a notice of the facts be affixed, in such form and manner and for such period not exceeding twenty-one days as the sheriff, magistrate, or justice may order to any premises occupied by that person, and that the person do pay the costs of such affixing, and if
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any person obstructs the affixing of such notice, or removes, defaces, or conceals the notice while affixed during the said period, be shall for each offence be liable to a penalty not exceeding five pounds.
(5.) If the occupier of a licensed slaughterhouse is convicted of an offence under this section the sheriff, magistrate, or justice convicting him may cancel the licence for such slaughter-house.
(6.) If any person obstructs an officer in the performance of his duty under any warrant for entry into any premises granted by a sheriff, magistrate, or justice in pursuance of this. Act for the purposes of this section, 1te shall, where the proceedings are before a sheriff, be liable to imprisonment for any term not exceeding one month in lieu of any penalty authorised by this Act for such obstruction.
(7.) A sheriff, magistrate, or justice, may act in adjudicating, on an offender under this section whether he has or has not acted in ordering the animal or article to be destroyed or disposed of.
§ LORD ADVOCATEmoved to leave out the Clause.
Motion agreed to; Clause struck out.
§ Clause 45,—