Sale of Horseflesh, &C Regulation Act, 1889

SALE OF HORSEFLESH, &c REGULATION ACT 1889

CHAPTER XI.

An Act to regulate the Sale of Horseflesh for Human Food.[1] [24th June 1889.]

[Preamble.]

Signs on horseflesh shops.

1. No person shall sell, offer, expose, or keep for sale any horseflesh for human food, elsewhere than in a shop, stall, or place over or upon which there shall be at all times painted, posted, or placed in legible characters of not less than four inches in length, and in a conspicuous position, and so as to be visible throughout the whole time, whether by night or day, during which such horseflesh is being offered or exposed for sale, words indicating that horseflesh is sold there.

Horseflesh not to be sold as other meat.

2. No person shall supply horseflesh for human food to any purchaser who has asked to be supplied with some meat other than horseflesh, or with some compound article of food which is not ordinarily made of horseflesh.

Power of medical officer of health to inspect meat, &c.

3. Any medical officer of health or inspector of nuisances or other officer of a local authority acting on the instructions of such authority or appointed by such authority for the purposes of this Act may at all reasonable times inspect and examine any meat which he has reason to believe to be horseflesh, exposed for sale or deposited for the purpose of sale, or of preparation for sale, and intended for human food, in any place other than such shop, stall, or place as aforesaid, and if such meat appears to him to be horseflesh he may seize and carry away or cause to be seized and carried away the same, in order to have the same dealt with by a justice as hereinafter provided.

Power of justice to grant warrant for search.

4. On complaint made on oath by a medical officer of health or inspector of nuisances, or other officer of a local authority, any justice may grant a warrant to any such officer to enter any building, or part of a building other than such shop, stall, or place as aforesaid, in which such officer has reason for believing that there is kept or concealed any horseflesh which is intended for sale, or for preparation for sale for human food, contrary to the provisions of this Act; and to search for, seize, and carry away or cause to be seized and carried away any meat that appears to such officer to be such horseflesh, in order to have the same dealt with by a justice as herein-after provided.

Any person who shall obstruct any such officer in the performance of his duty under this Act shall be deemed to have committed an offence under this Act.

Power of justice with reference to disposal of horseflesh.

5. It it appears to any justice that any meat seized under the foregoing provisions of this Act is such horseflesh as aforesaid, he may make such order with regard to the disposal thereof as he may think desirable; and the person in whose possession or on whose premises the meat was found shall be deemed to have committed an offence under this Act, unless he proves that such meat was not intended for human food contrary to the provisions of this Act.

Penalty.

6. Any person offending against any of the provisions of this Act, for every such offence shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds, to be recovered in a summary manner; and if any horseflesh is proved to have been exposed for sale to the public in any shop, stall, or eating-house other than such shop, stall, or place as in the first section mentioned, without anything to show that it was not intended for sale for human food, the onus of proving that it was not so intended shall rest upon the person exposing it for sale.

Definition of “horseflesh.”

7. For the purposes of this Act “horseflesh” shall include the flesh of asses and mules, and shall mean horseflesh, cooked or uncooked, alone or accompanied by or mixed with any other substance.

Local authorities for purposes of Act.

41 & 42 Vict. c. 52.

8. For the purposes of this Act the local authorities shall be, in the City of London and the liberties thereof, the [1] Commissioners of Sewers, and in the other parts of the county of London the [2] vestries and district boards acting in the execution of the Metropolis Local Management Acts, and in other parts of England the urban and rural sanitary authorities, and in Ireland the urban and rural sanitary authorities under the Public Health (Ireland) Act, 1878.

Application to Scotland.

38 & 39 Vict. c. 63.

9. In the application of this Act to Scotland the expression “justice” shall include sheriff and sheriff substitute, and the expression “local authority” shall mean any local authority authorised to appoint a public analyst under the Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 1875, and the procedure for the enforcement of this Act shall be in the manner provided in the thirty-third section of the said Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 1875.

Short title.

10. This Act may be cited as the Sale of Horseflesh, &c. Regulation Act, 1889.

[S. 11 rep. 8 Edw. 7. c. 49 (S.L.R.).]

[1 Short title, “The Sale of Horseflesh, &c. Regulation Act, 1889,” see s. 10.]

[1 Now the common council, see 60 & 61 Vict. c. cxxxiii.]

[2 Now metropolitan borough councils, see 62 & 63 Vict. c. 14, s. 4.]