Cattle Transportation in the United States 
AN ESSAY. 
GEO. T. ANGELL, 
President of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals 
BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED BIT THE SOCIETY. 
Office, 46 Washington Street. 
1872. Cattle Transportation in the United States, 
AN ESSAY. 
GEO. T. ANGELL, 
President oj the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. 
BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED JB ST THE SOCIETY. 
Office, 46 Washington Street. 
1872, Pwatjjwtto for % freWifln of Cmllg to Animals. 
Imminent. 
§i xtdaxa. 
GEO. T. ANGELL. 
Wut-^xzaxbmta. 
Messes. GEO. T. ANGELL. 
RUSSELL STURGIS, Jr. 
His Excellency WM. B. WASHBURN, 
Ex-Governors WM. CLAELIN, 
W. W. MORLAND. 
D. D. SLADE. 
GEORGE NOYES. 
THOMAS CONERY. 
FRANKLIN EVANS. 
His Honor WM. GASTON, 
A. H. BULLOCK, 
WM. G. WELD. 
And 96 others throughout the State. 
Mrs. WM. APPLETON. 
Mrs. J. C. JOHNSON. 
tons am. 
JOSEPH B. GLOVER. 
HENRY H. PETERS. 
HENRY S. RUSSELL. 
PATRICK T. JACKSON. 
GARDNER CHILSON. 
HENRY SALTONSTALL. 
Stomteg. 
ERANK B. FAY. 
C. L. lIEYWOOD. 
SAM’L E. SAWYER. 
Ssptcial SlgenL 
JOHN REED. 
CHAS. A. CURRIER. 
FRANK B. FAY. 
Office of the Society, Boston, March, 1872. 
We have been and are making special efforts to change the transportation of animals in this country. 
For this purpose, Mr. Angell has written the following Essay upon the subject, which we intend to put 
beford* every member of Congress, and, so far as possible, before the members of State Legislatures, City 
Governments, Railway Corporations and Boards of Health. It contains matter of public interest which 
we think, every citizen should read. We hope that editors throughout the country will aid us by giving 
it a place in their columns, with such editorial notices as may call attention to it. 
FRANK B, FAY, Secretary. CATTLE TRANSPORTATION IN THE UNITED STATES. 
On the 16th of April, 1871, George E. Temple, a 
Brighton butcher, died, as appears from the verdict 
of the coroner’s jury, of “ blood poison, inoculated 
in dressing for market a dead ox, one-half the meat 
of which was sent into Boston for sale.” On the 
20th of April a joint special committee of the aider- 
men and common council of Boston was appointed 
“ to ascertain whether unwholesome meats were sold 
in that city, and what legislation was necessary to 
protect the public health.” 
From the report of that committee, dated Septem- 
ber 19th, 1871, it appears that within a circuit of 
twenty miles from the State House, a population of 
over 650,000 people is supplied largely with meats 
brought a distance of from five hundred to twenty- 
five hundred miles, and that the cattle supplied are 
mainly from the Western States and Texas. 
THE BRIGHTON BUTCHER. 
during which they receive neither food nor water. 
At New Orleans they are transferred to boats for 
Cairo, and thence by rail to Tolono, Illinois. Dur- 
ing the entire trip they have food and water but 
about three times. Other herds are driven from the 
interior of Texas to Red River, Louisiana, and 
thence shipped to Cairo. By this route the treatment 
is no better.” 
A gentleman at Chicago, familiar with the Texas 
cattle trade says, “ that cattle going down the Red 
River, and up the Mississippi, to Cairo, are a week, 
or more, on the way; and generally without much 
food or water; that usually five or six dead are 
thrown overboard each morning, and he had known 
forty to fifty thrown over at one time.” 
Another gentleman, familiar with the Chicago 
stock-yards, says, “ that many animals die on the cars 
before reaching that point.” “ That he had seen 
about forty lying there in one pile.” 
The Chicago stock reporter says: “ There is great 
cruelty in transportation.” “ Cars are terribly over- 
crowded, and animals are carried great distances 
without food or water. The result is, that they 
are taken out at Chicago with bruises and sores, 
and legs and horns broken ; many of them dead, and 
more almost dead; and sometimes cattle and hogs, 
and sometimes cattle and sheep, are packed in the 
same car, which results in the smaller animals being 
trampled upon by the larger.” 
At Chicago animals are driven, or (if unable to 
walk) taken from the cars, and fed, watered and 
rested a few hours. They are then re-loaded for the 
East in the following manner:—“ The men employed 
to drive them into the cars are armed with saplings 
weighing often from eight to ten pounds, with sharp 
spikes, or goads, at the end. They rush upon the 
cattle, yelling, swearing and punching them with 
these spikes often twenty, thirty or forty times, tak- 
ing little care to avoid the eyes. Eighteen to twenty 
cattle are thus forced into thirty-feet cars, giving less 
than two feet space to the animal, and not unfre- 
quently smaller animals—calves, sheep and swine— 
arc crowded under them. In this way they are often 
carried for days without food, water, or possibility of 
lying down.” And it appears, from various authori- 
ties, that this same system of loading and transporta- 
tion prevails over the United States, as a rule; times 
of confinement and starvation varying of course with 
distances; cattle dealers hiring a car for a round 
sum, and forcing all the animals into it they can. 
It further appears that those from Texas are 
shipped to New Orleans, from thence by boats up 
the Mississippi to Cairo, thence by rail to Tolono, Illi- 
nois, and thence to Chicago and Eastern cities ; or 
they are driven in herds from the interior of Texas 
to Red River, and transported thence by boats and 
cars. Large numbers also are driven in herds from 
Texas to Abilene, Kansas, and thence transported in 
cars. 
All authorities agree that the transportation of 
these animals is attended with great suffering to the 
animals from want of food, water and rest; also 
from overcrowding, and the crowding of smaller ani- 
mals under the larger in the same cars; so that many 
of them die in transit, many more become diseased, 
and on all there is a large percentage of loss of 
weight. 
Between Indianola, Texas, and New Orleans, they 
are carried on steamers, under deck, in crowded 
condition, with poor ventilation, four and five days, 
and sometimes more, without food or water. In one 
case mentioned in the report, out of one hundred and 
fifty cattle shipped about forty died on the passage. 
Dr Mannheimer, of the Chicago Board of Health, 
writes from in December, 1869, as follows: 
“ I would be astonished to find Texas cattle in good 
condition upon their arriving at their places of des- 
tination. The manner in which they are crowded on 
shipboard and cars, after being exhausted by hurried 
journeys over the immense prairies of Texas, necessa- 
rily develops any latent germs of disease, and may 
cause disease in the healthiest cattle. For instance, 
thousands are shipped to New Orleans from Indian- 
ola, and Lavacca, a journey of from three to six days, 
HOW THE CATTLE COME. 
The Boston committee report that “ from ninety to 
one hundred calves are usually ci'owded into a single 
MASSACHUSETTS REPORTS. car.” “.That two hundred hogs or sheep is about 
the average,” and that “ animals are fed only twice 
between Chicago and Boston, and only three times 
between Kansas and Boston.” 
As the result of this transportation, it appears that 
many are taken out dead, and many more “ panting, 
fevered and unfit to kill.” Many of these animals 
are badly bruised, and some have ulcers. 
A Boston gentleman, who has carefully investigated 
the subject of cattle transportation from the West to 
our Eastern cities, visiting, as he says, all places of 
importance where he could gain information in regard 
to it, writes that large numbers of cattle are trampled 
to death on the cars ; that larger numbers at the end 
of these long routes “ come reeling and tumbling out 
of the cars as though blind or intoxicated; ” that 
these dead and diseased animals are dressed and sold 
in the markets, the carcasses sometimes “ full of dark- 
stained holes,” made by the goads used in loading. 
He saw, in cold weather, carloads of sheep without 
their fleeces, shivering with the cold. He was told 
by the editor of the “ Live Stock Journal ” that he 
had known a whole train of diseased sheep shipped to 
Albany and there slaughtered for the market; that 
large numbers of hogs die in transportation for the 
want of water. This gentleman states that he found 
the shrinkage of cattle on long routes to vary from' 
fifty to two hundred pounds, and that the Assistant- 
Superintendent of the Great Western Railroad, at 
Hamilton, told him that he had known “ the shrinkage 
to be as high as one hundred and eighty pounds to the 
animal, between Chicago and Suspension Bridge.” 
The Massachusetts Railroad Commissioners, on 
page thirty-one of their report of January, 1871, say 
“ that the shrinkage between Chicago and Boston is 
estimated to be from ten to fifteen per cent.,” and 
they add, “ cattle trains yield the road to most others, 
and pass hours on sidings; the animals are without 
any food or water, and often with insufficient ventila- 
tion in summer, or shelter in winter ; they are jolted 
off their legs, and then goaded tillv they struggle up, 
for they cannot be permitted to lie down ; they thus 
arrive at their destination, trampled upon, torn by 
each other’s horns, bruised, bleeding; having, in fact, 
suffered all that animals can suffer and live. Under 
the most favorable circumstances they leave the train 
panting, fevered, and unfit to kill; under the least 
favorable, a regular percentage of dead animals is 
hauled out of the cars.” 
One Boston firm, engaged in tanning “ Brighton 
hides,” say there is a loss of more than twenty-five 
thousand dollars per annum on hides tanned by them, 
by reason of bad transportation. Another Boston 
firm puts the loss, from the same cause, on hides 
tanned by them at about eighteen thousand dollars. 
The Masssachusetts Railroad Commissioners, in 
their report of 1871, page 80, say that “ the whole 
system of cattle transportation in the United States, 
as at present conducted, is an outrage on the first 
principles of humanity.” 
The Cattle Commissioners of New York say, in 
their Report of 1869 : “ There was revealed to the 
Commissioners such an amount of reckless barbarity 
toward animals, and of criminal indifference to the 
public health on the part of many who furnish meat 
to consumers, that one almost wonders how the city 
has escaped a pestilence.” 
The Massachusetts State Board of Health, in their 
report for 1872, just published, page 242, speak of 
“ the horrible treatment which animals now so often 
receive on railroads,” also “of the dressing for the 
markets of the animals arriving dead, and of those 
killed to save them from a speedy death by disease.” 
Dr. Derby, of that Board, in letter dated August 
21, 1871, and published in the Report of the Boston 
Committee, page 22, says :—“ It is notorious in 
Brighton, that many animals are killed to save them 
from speedy death by exhaustion or disease.” 
It would seem to be clear, then, that the present 
forms of transporting animals result (Ist), in suffer- 
ing and disease to the animals, and (2d), in great loss 
of weight and value. 
The next question to be examined is one of vital 
importance to the public health, viz.:—Whether the 
flesh of diseased animals is fit for human food ? 
There would seem to be no question as to this mat- 
ter in the minds of the physicians, and boards of 
health of European Continental cities, inasmuch as 
in a large portion, if not all the large cities of Conti- 
nental Europe, no meat is permitted to be sold that 
has not been previously inspected and approved 
by health officers. In some cities, like Paris, and 
Venice, all animals are required to be killed in one 
abattoir; in others, like Munich, they are not re- 
quired to be killed at one but must be 
inspected and approved; and this inspection in 
many, if not all cases, is of the animals before they are 
killed, and of their flesh after killing, 
The Jews, the world over, so far as I am informed, 
eat the meat of no animal that has not been exam- 
ined and approved by their rabbi, both before and 
after killing. 
In Great Britain, Parliament has passed laws 
authorizing the inspection and condemnation of 
meals, but I do not think they have been generally 
enforced. 
From an article in “ The Dublin Quarterly,” writ- 
ten by Professor Charles A. Cameron, I learn that 
they have recently commenced a rigid inspection of 
meats in the city of Dublin, and that in 1870 the 
health officers condemned in that city 388,380 pounds 
of animal food. The Professor writes, “ I may safely 
state that the citizens of Dublin are now almost perfectly 
certain to gel the flesh of sound animals in every 
SANITARY REPORTS AND INSPECTION. 
LOSS IN WEIGHT, ETC. 
Professor Horsford, In an official report on the sub- 
ject of furnishing live cattle to the United States 
army, during the late war, says that “ cattle weighing 
fifteen hundred pounds on the hoof at Chicago, are 
estimated to lose two hundred pounds of dressed 
meat by transportation in cars to Boston.” Last 
year 194 head of cattle were shipped from Brigham 
Young’s farm in Utah to Chicago, and it was chron- 
icled in the Chicago papers as a remarkable fact 
“ that in riding fifteen hundred miles the shrinkage 
was only two hundred and ten pounds a head.” 
It was estimated, at the Social Science Convention 
held in Albany in 1869, “ that Texas cattle, which 
then cost about one hundred dollars in New York 
markets, could, if properly transported, be sold in 
those markets at about forty dollars.” 5 
jutcher’s shop in the city.” He adds that many cases 
of sickness from eating the meats of diseased, animals 
have come to his knowledge. He also speaks of the 
serious effects resulting from drinking the milk of 
diseased animals. In the case of pigs he states that 
he has evidence of several of these animals dying in 
consequence of being fed upon the milk of diseased 
cows. 
Brighton butcher, before referred to, who died from 
blood poison, inoculated in dressing one of these ani- 
mals for market. 
HOW CAN TRANSPORTATION BE IMPROVED ? 
If then it appears that present forms of animal 
transportation are attended, 
First. With suffering and disease to the animals 
transported. 
Second. With great loss of weight and value. And 
Third. With greater or less danger to the public 
health; then the important question to be deter- 
mined is, How can these forms of transportation be 
improved ? 
So far as steam vessels are concerned, it is quite 
certain that many animals are brought safely across 
the Atlantic, and it would seem to follow that the 
same degree of care used on steamers transporting 
animals along the Gulf and up the Mississippi might 
be attended with equally favorable results. 
Of course the animals must have food, water, rest 
and proper ventilation, and on the Gulf protection 
from the motion of the vessel; for this latter pur- 
pose stalls with padded sides, also strong belts of 
leather or canvas slung under cattle have been 
suggested. 
In Great Britain all places on vessels used for 
transporting animals are required to be divided into 
pens not exceeding fifteen feet in length by nine in 
breadth ; the floors must have proper battens or foot- 
holds ; they must be ventilated by suitable separate 
inlet and outlet openings; and there are various 
other regulations as to animals being provided with 
food and water. 
Professor Gamgee states that several cases of ill- 
ness from eating the flesh of diseased animals have 
come to his knowledge. 
Dr. Livingstone says that in South Africa, negroes 
and others eating the flesh of animals attacked by 
pleuro-pneumonia suffer from a malignant disease. 
The registrar-general of Scotland states that car- 
buncular diseases have greatly increased since pleuro- 
pneumonia became epidemic amongst the cattle. 
The same has been found in England. 
The health officer of the board of health of 
Chicago, in February, 1871, reported that “ nearly 
one-half of all the beef, pork and mutton offered for 
sale in that city was damaged, and poor from disease, 
and unfit for food.” 
Professor E A. Parkes, in his “ Practical Hygiene,” 
says : “We should conclude from general principles 
that all diseases must effect the composition of flesh, 
and as the composition of our bodies is inextricably 
blended with the composition of the food and sub- 
stances we eat, it must be of the greatest importance 
to health to have the substances as pure as possible.” 
Professor Agassiz says: “ Let me call your atten- 
tion to the dangers arising from the ill treatment of 
beef cattle before slaughtering them.” 
Medical Inspector Hamlin, in his “ Notes on the 
Alimentation of Armies,” says : “ The flesh of mam- 
malia undergoes great change, by reason of.fasting, 
disturbance of sleep, and long continued suffering, 
resulting in its not only becoming worthless, but 
deleterious.” 
Of course these regulations would require the car- 
rying of a less number of animals with greater care 
and at a higher cost. But aside from the general 
suffering of the animals and the consequent disease 
and loss of weight and value, it is hardly possible 
that any form of transportation can be more costly 
than that which requires forty cattle, out of a hun- 
dred and fifty, to be thrown overboard between In- 
dianola and New Orleans, and five or six more per 
day between New Orleans and Cairo. 
But the greater and more important question is : 
How to improve the transportation of animals on 
railways ? 
. The Cattle Commissioners of New York, in their 
report of 1869, say : “ By the Bth of August, 186.8, it 
became apparent to the Metropolitan Board of 
Health, in New York city, that the alarming increase 
of obstinate and fatal diarrhoea in the Metropolitan 
District, was caused by the use of diseased meats.” 
The Massachusetts Railroad Commissioners, in their 
report of 1871, say: “At present, food, (animal) 
tainted in the course of transportation, is brought 
into Massachusetts, and endangers the health of the 
people.” 
Doctors Henry G. Clark, R. M. Hodges, Henry I. 
Bowditch, (Chairman of the Massachusetts State 
Board of Health), and Dr. S. A. Green, City Physi- 
cian of Boston, all gave to the Boston Committee 
opinions In regard to the injurious effects upon the 
public health, of the present system of supplying 
the markets. 
REFRIGERATOR CARS. 
A few years since, a “ refrigerator car,” so called, 
was invented, which has been somewhat in use since 
that time. It is claimed that in that car the meats 
of animals slaughtered in Chicago can be brought in 
good condition to eastern cities. In the New York 
“ Times” of November, 1866,1 find an estimate signed 
by Mr. Bergh of New York, that to transport thirty- 
two steers, weighing say 20,000 pounds, from Indian- 
apolis to New York, with the average shrinkage (sup- 
posing none of them die), cost at that time about 
$1,210, while to transport the dressed meat of the 
same animals in a “ refrigerator car ” would cost only 
about $lO0—making over $l,lOO difference in the 
cost of the meat at New York. 
The Massachusetts State Board of Health, in their 
report of January, 1871, say that meat taken from 
diseased cattle should be condemned, and no meat 
should be put into the markets without thorough inspec- 
tion. 
I will add that in 1866 it was found in New York 
that hogs were killed by feeding upon the blood and 
entrails of animals diseased by transportation, although 
they will fatten on the same material taken from 
healthy animals; and, in point, is the case of the 
There can be no doubt that It would be much 
cheaper to bring dressed meat from Chicago to the 
East than to bring living animals, and much better 
for the animals to be saved a thousand miles of pres- 6 
ent transportation. But the question which at once 
suggests itself is, What security have we that animals 
slaughtered in Chicago were in good condition there ? 
What security that we may not be eating the meats 
of diseased animals, which because they could not be 
brought further alive, were slaughtered there ? 
the danger of contagious diseases. In the 'resting 
yards stronger animals are likely to get more than 
their share of the food. It involves long delays, a 
longer investment and insurance to the shippers or 
consignees, and to the railway companies a larger 
rolling stock, more cattle yards and employes, with 
higher rates for transportation. 
The greatest advantage to be gained by the enact- 
ment and enforcement of such laws, would be, as I 
believe, that they would compel railway corporations to 
immediately adopt some one of the stock cars now in- 
vented, in which animals can be carried long distances 
without unloading, having food, water and rest, and 
coming out at the end of a thousand miles of travel in 
almost if not quite as good condition as at the point of 
departure. 
DISEASED MEAT. 
The New York State Cattle Commissioners, in 
their Report of 1869, say that “it is absolutely nec- 
essary that cattle should be inspected both upon the 
hoof and also their internal organs while being 
dressed for market, because unwholesome beef and 
other meats are constantly thrown upon the market 
so prepared and disguised that detection is almost 
impossible.” 
Professor Cameron says that “ the flesh of oxen in 
the congestive stage of pleuro-pneumonia cannot be 
distinguished from that of healthy oxen.” 
The Board of Health of Chicago, in their Report 
published in 1871, page 202, speaking of the Texas 
cattle fever say : “ As a general rule, it was found 
impossible to decide by the appearance of the carcass, 
after the viscera had been removed, whether it was 
fit for market or not.” 
Five such inventions have recently appeared ; two 
in England and three in this country. 
The first English invention was by W. Reid, of 
Granton, and has been tried with success. A de- 
scription and drawing of it can be found in the Lon- 
don “ Engineer ” of November 19, 1869, and in the 
London “ Animal World ”of December, 1869. The 
second was invented by Mr. Welch, of Southall, near 
London. A drawing and description of this will be 
found in the “ Engineer ” of April 15, 1870, and the 
“ Animal World” of July, 1870. 
The first American invention was patented, I 
think, in 1867, by J. H. Aldrich of Massachusetts; 
the second by John W. Street, of Marshalltown, 
lowa, and the third has been very recently invented 
and patented by S. W. Remer, Superintendent of 
the Car Company’s Works, at Taunton, Mass. A 
description of all these inventions maybe found in 
“ Our Dumb Animals ” (printed at Boston), num- 
bers of July, 1869, December, 1870 and March, 
1872. 
Differing in details, all these inventions agree in 
the general principle of separating the animals by 
partitions, or stalls, movable, or otherwise, in such 
manner as to prevent crowding, and in giving them 
a full supply of food and water. They may be de- 
scribed as movable stables, carrying a somewhat 
less number of animals, with a much higher degree 
of care. Three of them and perhaps all, are so 
changeable, that cattle may be carried one way and 
merchandise the other ; and I think that all of them 
can, without great expense, be adapted to cattle cars 
now in use. 
Mr. Remer’s invention is but just patented; but 
the car invented by Mr. Street, has been several 
months in use and has proved itself, as I am informed, 
a success. The Chicago “ Tribune ”of October 16, 
1871, speaking of its third trip to New York, says 
that “it was loaded in thirteen minutes; that it 
saves on stock sent by it three days time (stoppages), 
sixty pounds shrinkage per head, all losses by tramp- 
ling and crowding ; the services ol two men, some- 
thing on feeding, and that it will revolutionize the 
business of stock carrying.” . . 
In a pamphlet on “cattle shipping by railway in 
the United States,” by the President of the Com- 
pany organized for manufacturing these cars, he 
states that the cattle come out at the end of the 
route, “ fresh as from a stable, and that on shrinkage 
IMPROVED STOCK CARS. 
Dr. Derby, of the Massachusetts Board of Health, 
says, in letter before referred to : “ The recognition 
of diseased meat is not easy for either physicians or 
butchers; probable guesses may be made in some 
cases, but there can be no approach to certainty in 
the recognition of the meat of animals which had 
been sick at the time of killing or wlr ffi have been 
brought to the slaughter-house dead.” 
Horace W. Jordan, member of the Brighton Board 
of Health, also one of the Mass. State Cattle Com- 
missioners, testifies before the Boston Committee 
(see their Report, page 26 of Evidence) as follows : 
“ I think it would be an excellent thing if the 
public could know what comes from Chicago. The 
public are imposed upon by meat from Chicago, and 
I think they will be more. At Chicago, all the poor 
cattle, bulls, stags and everything disagreeable are 
picked up, &c. This is what you get from Chicago.” 
And he adds, that when the meat is examined here, 
it is almost impossible to tell whether the animal was 
diseased. 
All these matters should be considered in con- 
nection with the refrigerator car. 
Another method of meeting this question consists 
in procuring the enactment of laws to prohibit rail- 
way companies from overcrowding their cattle cars, 
and to compel them to stop these cars at certain in- 
tervals of time, unload the animals and give them 
several hours for food, water and rest. Laws of this 
kind have been enacted in several of the States, and 
a bill of similar import passed the United States 
House of Representatives last winter, and is now be- 
fore Congress. When public opinion on the subject 
shall become sufficiently strong, these laws may be 
enforced, but there is always a difficulty at first in 
compelling great monied corporations to do what 
they are not inclined to. 
And there are objections to this frequent unloading 
and reloading of animals. It is attended with more 
or less suffering to the animals. It exposes them to 
LEGAL REMEDIES'. 7 
ae, saying nothing of other matters, there is a 
saving on every carload, of over f 100. 
As these cars can be used for transporting animals 
one way and merchandise the other, I think there 
can be no doubt that it is for the interest of Eail- 
way Companies to adopt them, because since a less 
number of animals can be carried in a ear, more 
cars will be required to carry them and the busi- 
ness and profits of carrying them will be thereby 
increased; while, paradoxical as it may seem, the 
same, or a less number of cars will do the work, because 
on each trip, several days time now required for 
stoppages, will be saved. 
Besides, there will be no expense of unloading and 
re-loading at way stations, or for rent of extra cattle 
yards, and the risk of contagious diseases will be greatly 
lessened. 
It is for the interest of shippers and consignees, as 
well as railway companies to have these cars adopted, 
because the saving of animals that now die on the 
passage, and of the large shrinkage on those that get 
through alive, and of the damage to their hides, say- 
ing nothing of interest and insurance, will much 
more than cover the increased cost of transportation, 
and therefore meats can be sold here at lower prices, 
which will tend to increase their consumption and 
the business of carrying them. 
It is not impossible even, that the estimate made 
at the Social Science Convention, at Albany, in 
1869, and before referred to, may prove correct, viz., 
“ that Texas cattle, which then cost nearly f 100 in 
New York, could, with proper transportation, be sold 
there at about |40.” 
1 answer, laws should be enacted, even though we 
may not be able at first, to effectively enforce them, 
—laws to regulate the number of animals, and man- 
ner of carrying them on sea-going and other vessels 
and steamers,—to prohibit, as they do in England, 
the transportation of sheep in cold weather, without 
their fleeces, and the transportation of poultry in 
ways which cause suffocation,—to stop this crowding 
of cattle cars, so that as on German and French cat- 
tle trains, animals may be carried standing quietly, 
side by side, tied to the lattice-work of the cars, and 
without those jerks in starting and stopping, so char- 
acteristic of American impatience, and, as every engi- 
neer knows, so unnecessary and easily avoided. And 
then there should be laws, that animals in transport- 
ation must be properly fed and watered, and have 
rest, either on the cars or by more frequent unloading 
at way stations ; and that calves, which now receive 
no nourishment from the time they are taken from their 
mothers, during three or more days, until they are 
killed, shall be fed, as they are in Europe, with suit- 
able food. 
HOW IS THIS TO BE DONE ? 
All these laws would be useful, just in proportion 
as public opinion should compel their enforcement. 
But, in my judgment, the change of animal trans- 
portation in this country is to be chiefly effected : 
First, by informing and arousing public opinion, 
and carrying information upon the subject to the 
various persons and corporations specially interested; 
and second, by the enactment and enforcement of 
stringent laws (upon the necessity of which all will 
agree), for the careful inspection of all animals 
slaughtered in the neighborhood of our large cities, 
and of all meats while being dressed for market, and 
before they are offered for sale. 
When it becomes as impossible here, as in conti- 
nental European cities, to sell the meats of diseased 
animals, every precaution will be taken to bring ani- 
mals to market in good condition. When the Chris- 
tian inspector here shall exercise the same care as 
the Jewish rabbi, the Christian will eat as good meat 
as the Jew. When the Boards of Health of our 
Eastern cities shall condemn over three hundred 
thousand pounds of animal food in a single year, 
as the Dublin Board of Health did in 1870, animal 
transportation in this country will be changed, and 
we shall be able to say here, as Professor Cameron 
said there, that “ the citizens are now almost perfectly 
certain to get the flesh of sound animals in every 
butcher’s shop in the city.” 
It is of course, for the interest of consumers to 
have these cars adopted, because it is for their inter- 
est to have wholesome meats al lower prices. 
SAVING EFFECTED. 
The saving to be effected by these cars can be 
easily seen by the following figures : In 1869, Chi- 
cago alone, shipped to eastern cities 294,717 cattle. 
The Massachusetts Railroad Commissioners, in their 
report of 1869, say that the average shrinkage be- 
tween Chicago and Boston, is estimated at ten to 
fifteen per cent. (Professor Horsford puts it as high as 
twenty per cent.). Call it ten per cent, and the cat- 
tle to average, at the point of departure, one thousand 
pounds each, there would be one hundred pounds 
shrinkage to the animal, and the loss this side of Chi- 
cago, by shrinkage alone, amounts to 29,471,700 
pounds of beef. Add to this the shrinkage on cattle 
shipped from St. Louis, Cincinnati, Tolono and other 
points; add shrinkage on calves, sheep and swine 
(of which in New York City alone, nearly two mil- 
lions are consumed annually) ; add also all shrinkage 
between Kansas and the western cities before named ; 
add loss on animals which die on the cars, also loss 
of value by reason of their becoming diseased, also 
the damage to hides as before stated, and we shall 
begin to get some idea of the tremendous cost of pres- 
ent forms of transportation. 
It seems to me then entirely clear, that the cattle 
transportation of this country must he changed ; and 
that the sooner the change is brought about the bet- 
ter it will be for the interests of all concerned. 
I have prepared the foregoing essay with the ear- 
nest hope that it may hasten a change of Animal 
Transportation in this country. I have treated of 
the financial and sanitary questions involved, but let 
me add, there are other considerations of higher im- 
port, which ask that a Christian Pulpit and Press 
and the voice of a humane people shall demand that 
these dumb creatures be protected from cruelties, 
which it is hardly in the power of language to ade- 
quately describe. 
Geo. T. Angell. _ 
March, 1872,