Day 108 - 27 Mar 95 - Page 19
1 secretary of the thing which preceded FORTH. It was called
2 FAWAC, the Farm Animal Welfare Advisory Council, and we
3 discussed the matter with them for half an hour or
4 something and it was just a defensive stance I would say,
5 although Mr. Jackson was more concerned than Mr. Horman I
6 remember.
7
8 Q. It has been said in this court that various things would
9 not be allowed by the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and
10 Food and this would be stopped and that would be stopped.
11 In general, what is your experience of the Ministry and
12 what action they take with regard to any possible welfare
13 problems?
14 A. We are very concerned by their apparent lack of
15 concern. They still have a policy of giving warning when
16 they are going to visit any farm, but I will say battery
17 farms for the current case in question. Two days is
18 common, which of course gives the farmers plenty of time,
19 and they certainly would remove any deads and incinerate
20 them and so on and so forth. Only last week on this
21 television programme, a battery in Norwich was featured and
22 it was one of the worst I have ever seen. I have not seen
23 it personally but I have seen the original video taken
24 there, and I have discussed the case with the vet at
25 Norwich MAFF.
26
27 I was horrified by the fact that she seemed to accept the
28 fact that these birds which were clearly, they were just
29 desiccated almost, she did actually argue the fact that it
30 is not in the law that you remove dead birds from the
31 cages. Of course it is in the Codes and we discussed this
32 fully on the phone. I could not understand the reasoning
33 and also we know that they do not know where all the farms
34 are even, and we have been to places where they have not
35 been inspected in decades, literally, and did not expect to
36 be, so the amount of inspections of intensive poultry
37 units, it is minimal, and prior warning is given when it
38 does happen.
39
40 Q. Would that apply to the broiler industry as well?
41 A. I am sure it does because they are a very
42 over-stretched service. They have, I think, about 300
43 state vetinary offices out in the field and there are,
44 I think, a quarter of a million farms in this country
45 holding livestock and of course with things like the BSE
46 and, yes, particularly BSE, in recent years they have been
47 over-stretched to a degree. They just go to a very, very
48 small percentage of farms.
49
50 Q. Could I just clarify, the MAFF official that you spoke to
51 felt that it was acceptable to have dead birds in the
52 cages?
53 A. Well, they have described that farm as acceptable, yes
54 and it was, to my mind, totally unacceptable.
55
56 Q. Was this just one or two birds that were dead in the cages?
57 A. No, there were several and the mortality figures which
58 were revealed in this programme suggested to any normal
59 person that the deads were taken out twice a week because
60 the figures were for Tuesdays and Thursdays only, nothing
