Day 108 - 27 Mar 95 - Page 20

     
     1        on other days, nothing at weekends, and before depopulation
     2        of the house, the figures rose massively, so that clearly
     3        they had decided it would not be a good idea to have
     4        captions in there wondering if it was a dead or a live bird
     5        in putting their hands on these probably maggot ridden
     6        carcasses, so the whole scene was totally unacceptable from
     7        both the ethical point of view and the legal point of view,
     8        but a MAFF refused to comment on the programme, to be
     9        interviewed on the programme.
    10
    11        I am very concerned about this because it does put the
    12        normal person in the position of not knowing what to do
    13        when they find what they consider a welfare problem because
    14        MAFF is the only body with right of entry to farms apart
    15        from, I think, in certain circumstances like poisoning or
    16        health problems that could be dealt with by an animal
    17        health officer of the local authority.  There are a few
    18        exceptions but, generally speaking, certainly the RSPCA has
    19        no right of entry and nor does any member of the public of
    20        course, so it does put people in the public, members of the
         public, ordinary people, if you like, in a very, very
    22        difficult position.
    23
    24   Q.   Has the enforcement of guidelines and the law been brought
    25        up at Farm Animal Welfare Council meetings?  Is that a
    26        subject that is discussed?
    27        A.  I have not been to meetings of that kind.  I have only
    28        been to these pre -----
    29
    30   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do you mean has it been raised when the Farm
    31        Animal Welfare network have been consulted by FAWAC?  Is
    32        that what you mean?
    33
    34   MS. STEEL:  I am not sure  how to answer that.
    35
    36   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Mrs. Druce has not been to meetings of the
    37        Committee itself.  Therefore, I wondered when you asked
    38        about "meetings" you meant "when consulted"?
    39
    40   MS. STEEL: Yes.  The prereport meetings that you attended, is
         that something ----
    42        A.  Yes.  I think, in a sense, they have been more cosmetic
    43        than pointful because although the thing was still in its
    44        draft form, we did not notice great changes after this
    45        meeting.  It was, I think, partly a courtesy gesture
    46        because we put a lot of work into it.  But, obviously, if
    47        we are commenting, for instance, on the boiler system, we
    48        would voice our concerns about, for instance, inspection of
    49        the clock because this would be connected with stock and
    50        density size of building etc. 
    51 
    52   Q.   So that is something that has been raised? 
    53        A.  Yes.
    54
    55   Q.   Has there been any response to that?
    56        A.  We found both their report on the broilers and the
    57        turkeys relatively unsatisfactory, in the case of turkeys
    58        very unsatisfactory.  The main thrust of the broiler
    59        report, I think, which was improvements was that they
    60        actually identified the leg weakness problem as being a