Day 109 - 28 Mar 95 - Page 20
1 MS. STEEL: Is it possible to have longer than five minutes?
2
3 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I will come back at 12 o'clock. Mr. Styles
4 will come out. I prefer you not to take much longer, but
5 if you do need longer tell him.
6
7 (Short adjournment)
8
9 MR. MORRIS: Just ask a few things about one or a few hours of
10 the chickens' lives in the transport. Do you have any
11 concerns about the number of birds in the trucks, the
12 volume?
13 A. Yes, because this obviously contributes to the fact
14 that you cannot monitor any individual bird's welfare
15 whatsoever.
16
17 Q. But whether you can monitor them or not, the effect ----
18 A. Yes, the heat; of course, heat will build up and the
19 more birds, the greater that would be in hot weather.
20
21 Q. It has been said that they have been transported 20 to 30
22 miles, up to 70 miles; do you have any concerns about that?
23 A. Well, if there are adverse conditions they could be --
24 on the whole, if the lorry is in motion, obviously the heat
25 is not building up to the extent that it is. It is more
26 serious to have them waiting at the lairage for long
27 periods because the air flow helps, but obviously the
28 longer the distance the more we feel concerned;
29 particularly if they are injured in any way, it is obvious
30 that the longer they are in pain the worse the welfare
31 problem.
32
33 Q. It has been said they are kept in their drawers or mobiles,
34 or whatever, for up to three hours in a yard before being
35 put on the slaughter line. Do you have any concerns about
36 that?
37 A. I cannot remember the conditions. Some companies spray
38 them with water and various things to lessen the effects of
39 heat stress, but certainly heat stress can occur very, very
40 seriously once the lorry is motionless, and depending on
41 the weather it can be, three hours could be a very long
42 time.
43
44 Q. If they were not receiving food and water throughout this
45 whole period of transportation would that concern you?
46 A. Clearly, it is very unsatisfactory. If you are talking
47 in terms of animal welfare, it is a highly unsatisfactory
48 period; the whole thing, catching, transport, waiting
49 round. Obviously, they are generally kept -- deprived of
50 food for a few hours because the more empty the gut is the
51 better for the processing plant, the processing stage. So,
52 clearly, they are under enormous stress. There is no doubt
53 about that in my mind at all.
54
55 Q. Being hung upside down, whether or not the shackles are
56 themselves unsatisfactory, the fact of being hung upside
57 down, does that give you any concern?
58 A. Again, it is a position that the bird is never in
59 normally ever, so it is clearly frightening and novel and
60 it would cause suffering in the sense of extreme stress.
