Day 108 - 27 Mar 95 - Page 03

     
     1        From then on we formed -- well, it formed itself gradually
     2         -- there was no starting date really for Chickens' Lib --
     3        and that we concentrated in the early days very much on
     4        buying battery hens, so-called spent hens, from various
     5        sources, mainly farms, sometimes slaughter houses, markets,
     6        and we did things like taking them to the Ministry of
     7        Agriculture to face them with the real condition of these
     8        birds.
     9
    10        Then the campaign became much more sophisticated, if you
    11        like, because in the early days it was really the cruelty,
    12        in our opinion, of keeping birds so very closely confined,
    13        and then other factors emerged gradually until this whole
    14        scene is very, very complex.
    15
    16   Q.   Right.  I mean, is your experience just based on your first
    17        hand experiences of the poultry you have kept, or you have
    18        looked at the industry wider than that?
    19        A.  It has been very mixed.  I think the most valuable
    20        parts of the campaign has been observing birds that we have
         bought from very confined or, in the question of broilers,
    22        not quite so -- well, confined but in a different way, and
    23        seeing that they, in fact, have retained their behavioural
    24        patterns which are obviously thousands, if not millions, of
    25        years old and that there is no real change in these birds,
    26        except in the case of the battery hen, I have never, never
    27        observed one go broody.  That has been bed out through
    28        selecting a non-broody bird, but they cannot select out
    29        behavioural patterns, and this has become extremely
    30        apparent.  I am sorry, I think I have forgotten part of
    31        your question.
    32
    33   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I have read the whole of your report,
    34        obviously, but the first two paragraphs set out the basis
    35        of your expertise and, unless you say anything to the
    36        contrary, I will take that as read.
    37        A.  Yes, thank you.
    38
    39   MS. STEEL:  Sorry, we were actually -----
    40
    MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Is there anything specifically you want
    42        Mrs. Druce to add to that?  You are going to come,
    43        I assume, to her experience, having purchased chicks, as to
    44        how they showed and so on?
    45
    46   MS. STEEL:  Yes.  (To the witness):  In actual fact, the
    47        statement that you made on 22nd July 1993 -- are you happy
    48        for that all to be taken as read ---
    49        A.  Yes.
    50 
    51   Q.   -- as your evidence? 
    52        A.  Yes. 
    53
    54   Q.   Why was the organisation initially called Chickens' Lib?
    55        A.  Well, it was just a catchy name which said it all in
    56        two words, and it has been popular in some quarters and not
    57        in others.
    58
    59   Q.   Can you tell us what your role as national organiser of
    60        FAWN entails?