BIRMINGHAM PUBLIC OFFICE.
YESTERDAY (WEDNESDAY).
Magistrates present: Sir JOHN RATCLIFF, Dr. MELSON, and Messrs. S. BUCKLEY, VAN WART, and WESTLEY RICHARDS.
ALLEGED DISEASED MEAT. – A butcher named Stephen Wallis, Holborn Hill, Nechells, was summoned by Inspector Cooper with offering a live cow for sale in a state unfit for human food. The officer stated that on the previous day he went dressed in a butcher’s coat to the defendant’s shop, at Holborn Hill. He saw a cow in a shed, and the defendant was offering it for sale to a man he sent for £6. Cooper asked him what he wanted for the cow, and he said he had been offered £5 for it. He had given it medicine, and it was good enough for some butchers, and he wanted £6. for it. Cooper then seized the cow, and told him who he was. The defendant said it was a nasty trick on his part. The animal was emaciated, and had had mustard plasters applied to its side. It had pleuro-pneumonia. Mr. Parker and Mr. Tailby, veterinary surgeons, proved that the cow was suffering from pleuro-pneumonia. The animal was curable. – For the defence it was stated that the defendant bought the cow some time ago for £18., in order to get a living by selling its milk. The defendant knew nothing of cows. Upon its being seen by a friend he found it to be unwell. It had since been attended to by a veterinary surgeon. The defendant had never intended to sell it. A man stated these facts, and also that he and his family had drunk the cow’s milk. The magistrates dismissed the case.
(Birmingham Daily Gazette, 30th June 1864)
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