Day 108 - 27 Mar 95 - Page 07
1 the other invited guest was Professor Colin Spedding who is
2 the Chairman of the Farm Animal Welfare Council.
3
4 Q. Who invited you to speak at that?
5 A. It was organised by ADAS, the Agricultural Development
6 and Advisory Service which is closely linked to MAFF, of
7 course.
8
9 Q. Why were you invited?
10 A. Well ......
11
12 Q. What input were they seeking?
13 A. This was a lively meeting. In the invitation, I
14 remember Mr. Bray said that he thought that my presence
15 would help a lively discussion after the meeting.
16
17 Q. The Norfolk Poultry Discussion Group, is that part of the
18 Agricultural Development Advisory Service, or is that a
19 broiler?
20 A. No, it is just every area has one of these.
21
22 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Who are they set up though?
23 A. I do not know. It might be by ADAS, but it is a
24 get-together for people in a certain region, I am afraid --
25 I think it might be organised by ADAS, but I am not sure
26 about that.
27
28 MS. STEEL: Who are the type of people that would attend?
29 A. Well, there were big producers from the area. There
30 was a representative from Bernard Matthews and, in fact,
31 all the poultry -- there were egg producers and poultry
32 producers, the well-known companies.
33
34 Q. So, it is something of an industry -----
35 A. Yes, it was an industry get-together, yes.
36
37 Q. Going back to your experience of poultry, your first-hand
38 experience, have you visited poultry farms?
39 A. I visited a great many laying hen farms, mostly of
40 which were batteries. I cannot count the many dozens,
41 possibly hundreds, over the last -- it is a long time. Our
42 campaign has been going for nearly 25 years.
43
44 Q. When you have visited these farms, I believe you have said
45 already that you purchased chickens from them?
46 A. Yes, what we call "spent hens" usually, yes.
47
48 Q. What was the purpose of buying those hens? Was it to
49 provide a rescue service or -----
50 A. No, because the size of the problem is so massive that
51 we have never boasted doing that, but you do learn a great
52 deal about the behavioural patterns by presenting the bird
53 with what we would call a much more natural environment.
54 Also it gave us an opportunity to see into the battery
55 sheds, which basically are closed to the public, and by
56 approaching the farmer and asking to buy a few spent hens
57 we have seen into very, very many units.
58
59 We have also seen, of course, into units like at
60 Gleadthorpe, which is the Ministry of Agriculture
