The Cost of Cruelty (1881)

AUTHOR: Bergh, Henry

KEYWORDS: animals, food, railroad

SUMMARY (Bryn Skibo, edited Deborah Madsen)

Bergh writes not just of the economic loss from the death and abuse of “meat” animals resulting from the conditions of their transport to the slaughterhouse, but the value of the animals’ labor in the economy, including chickens’ eggs and goose feathers, as well as the strength and utility of horses and oxen. Thus, the “cost of cruelty” is both economic (the loss of animal meat in transit) and medical (humans eat the diseased meat of abused animals that causes cancer).

Addressing first an outbreak of disease in New York in 1872, Bergh describes how the epidemic resulted in a great loss of horses across the city, leading to the abuse of those that remained. This is a potent image of the importance of horses to the functioning of the city. Bergh then attempts to put an economic value on these animals, who are treated as if they “are cheaper than oats” (76). This economic tallying leads him to identify the cost to the meat market of “shrinkage” (how much weight a cow, ox, sheep, or pig loses during transport, not including those that are killed in transit). Bergh suggests that if this information (about wastage and abuse) were made public, the situation would change rapidly.