Day 109 - 28 Mar 95 - Page 16
1 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, it is British Poultry Science (1986)
2 received for publication 16th April 1985.
3
4 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Is it in the same section?
5
6 MR. RAMPTON: No, it is in tab L. It is a single paper by
7 itself. Again, by Gregory and Wotton.
8
9 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Thank you.
10
11 THE WITNESS: Just page 203, the end of the first paragraph. It
12 draws attention to the fact that, "Severing the spinal cord
13 is probably the neck cutting method of choice in many
14 processing plants because it facilitates feather release at
15 plucking", which I think shows that some poultry slaughter
16 is putting economic considerations well in advance of
17 humane considerations but that there is a law intended to
18 protect poultry. That is my observation, the last one.
19
20 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do you think you have finished virtually?
21
22 MS. STEEL: I have a few things to go over, not on slaughter.
23 I do not know if there is anything that Mrs. Druce wanted
24 to add?
25
26 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I wondered why you were pausing. If you were
27 pausing because you were not sure whether you had anything
28 more to ask, I would have the break now. What I suggest is
29 you ask the matters you do have in mind, then we will have
30 the five minute break.
31
32 MS. STEEL: Right. I paused because the last time I looked up
33 you were writing and then I forgot to look again.
34
35 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is very considerate of you, but I will ask
36 you to stop if I need you to.
37
38 MS. STEEL: (To the witness) Is there anything else on slaughter
39 you wanted to add apart from that? I am not expecting you
40 to.
41 A. No, merely that it does disturb me that decapitation is
42 the final welfare insult to birds who have missed every
43 single correct part of the procedure, and that there did
44 seem to be a sort of measurable number of birds that were
45 missing the stunner at Sun Valley and missing everything
46 else. I would think that probably a hand held stunner at
47 that stage would be far preferable to decapitation.
48
49 Q. Is that something that is available?
50 A. Yes. People that rear on a farm and slaughter on a
51 farm -- this happens, for instance, for the Christmas trade
52 -- that is used, yes.
53
54 Q. While we have this file open, at tab G on page ----
55
56 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Does a hand held stunner cause cardiac
57 arrest?
58 A. I think it will depend on how it is set. I think it
59 can, yes, but it would cause -- I mean, you would need a
60 back up knife obviously as well, yes.
