Day 002 - 29 Jun 94 - Page 10

     
     1        the plaintiffs' own documents show, for a significant
              number of their customers McDonald's food plays a large
     2        part in their overall diet.  Mr. Rampton stated that the
              plaintiffs' witness, Mr. Wheelock, would give evidence
     3        that it was safe to eat the plaintiffs' food seven days a
              week.  In fact, Mr. Wheelock gives as his example a diet
     4        in which only one meal per week from Mr. McDonald's -- one
              McDonald's meal a week is perhaps not a significant part
     5        of someone's diet, but there are a great many people who
              do eat at McDonald's far more frequently than once a
     6        week.  These people are running a risk that their health
              will suffer in the long term.  Some of the documents
     7        disclosed by the plaintiffs indicate that some of their
              staff may eat there nearly every day of every week.
     8
              I want to move on now to animals the treatment of animals.
     9        Yesterday, Mr. Rampton said that the plaintiffs were not
              attempting to stop people expressing their opinions in
    10        relation to the way animals are treated in order to
              provide McDonald's products.  That was in relation to
         expressing a view concerning the torture and murder.  That
              is totally false.  The allegation in the statement of
    12        claim is that the fact sheet libels McDonald's by saying
              they are responsible for the inhumane torture and murder
    13        of animals.
 
    14        This, as Mr. Rampton acknowledged yesterday, is a matter
              of opinion.  There are a great many people who believed
    15        the way the animals are reared and slaughtered can
              accurately and truthfully be called torture and murder.
    16        It would be a very sad day if corporations are able to
              prevent people from expressing honest beliefs.
    17
              As you will hear, on their own admission, McDonald's are
    18        the world's largest user of beef and the world's second
              largest user of chicken.  It, therefore, follows
    19        automatically that they are responsible for the murder of
              very many millions of animals.  As the fact sheet states,
    20        some of them, especially chickens and pigs, spend their
              lives in entirely artificial conditions on huge factory
         farms with no access to air or sunshine and no freedom of
              movement.
    22
              Mr. Rampton admitted yesterday the chickens used for
    23        McDonald's products are reared indoors, but he stated in
              court that this was not true for pigs.  In fact, according
    24        to the statement of the plaintiffs' own witness,
              Mr. Neville Gregory, a significant percentage of pigs were
    25        kept indoors.  I will read the paragraph from
              Mr. Gregory's statement: 
    26 
              "The company which supplied McKey Food Service Limited 
    27        with pig meat slaughters pigs at a rate of 220 to 240 per
              hour and between 9,000 and 10,000 per week.  Between 35
    28        and 40 per cent are fattened on the company's farms and 60
              per cent of that proportion were born on the company's
    29        breeding units.  The remainder of the supply comes from
              privately owned farms".  There are no details about
    30        whether they are reared indoors or not.  "The company has
              nine outdoor breeding units with about 500,000 each unit.