Day 108 - 27 Mar 95 - Page 11

     
     1        its welfare, that is perfectly right.  I just wonder how
     2        much detail is needed and that is all.
     3
     4   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I think you should go on, Ms. Steel.  What I
     5        would suggest you focus on is the extent to which Mrs.
     6        Druce can help me as to what chickens feel about their
     7        circumstances, if you see what I mean.  It may be just too
     8        simple to say because a human being feels horribly
     9        miserable in those circumstances, therefore, one can assume
    10        that a chicken can.  But just as Dr. Gomez Gonzalez pointed
    11        at factors, for instance, if the chicken lays well he
    12        suggests it is a sign of some contentment, so it may be
    13        Mrs. Druce can point to factors which you would suggest
    14        were a reliable basis for concluding that they are not
    15        content, so go on with your line of questioning.  It might
    16        help to focus it if you bear that in mind.
    17
    18   MS. STEEL:  Right.
    19
    20   MR. MORRIS:  Just to say on page 6 of our pleadings there is a
         general line saying:  "The numerous outlets of the First
    22        and Second Plaintiffs worldwide inevitably leads to
    23        unnecessary death and suffering of animals both throughout
    24        their lives and by the fact of and methods of their
    25        slaughter", so, it is a general position of suffering of
    26        animals from McDonald's products as part of the pleadings
    27
    28   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do not worry, go on with it, but just bear in
    29        mind what I have said.
    30
    31   MS. STEEL:  Okay.  (To the witness):  Are there problems with
    32        observing birds in battery units which would have
    33        implications for welfare of the birds?
    34        A.  Yes, because it is law that they must be inspected
    35        thoroughly every day with the obvious and it is stated to
    36        see that they are in a state of well being, or some such
    37        wording, and in a battery, for instance, of 40,000 birds
    38        which is not uncommon, in four tier arrangement, which,
    39        again, is the most popular, 10,000 of these will be on the
    40        lowest tier which is also at floor level and very often
         almost in darkness because the lighting is from above
    42        generally, although there are alternative systems, and very
    43        often it could only be described as extreme gloom, and if
    44        you were going to look into the cages to count the birds
    45        and see that they were all well, you would really have to
    46        be on your hands and knees, or in some such very
    47        uncomfortable position, and it is our contention that
    48        proper inspections rarely happen, and that it is assumed
    49        that deads are removed daily, although that does not always
    50        happen, but poultry do not always die a swift death, they 
    51        can linger for several days. 
    52 
    53        The job is removing the deads which, in our opinion, often
    54        involves prior suffering of possibly days, if not weeks,
    55        and then the top tier is often largely obscured by a feed
    56        trough.  On one occasion we bought a hen from a battery
    57        which proved to have an enormously distended abdomen which
    58        the stockmen was totally unaware of until we asked for that
    59        particular hen.  It was full of rotting eggs and it would
    60        have shortly had egg peritonitis.  We had it post-mortemed