Day 111 - 30 Mar 95 - Page 29
1 That would, basically, be my concern about the separation
2 of the outside of the abattoir and inside.
3
4 Q. So we have got up to dehiding.
5 A. I would like to start from the beginning of the
6 slaughter line then if we are looking at the slaughter
7 hygiene in particular. If we start at the beginning, the
8 first?
9
10 Q. Take it slowly.
11
12 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. Do try to speak as slowly as you can
13 bring yourself to do?
14 A. All right. Well, the first area of concern for me was
15 where it says "blood hoist", "bleed hoist". There is a man
16 there who shackles the carcasses.
17
18 MR. MORRIS: This is just under "cattle stun pen"?
19 A. That is right, at the beginning of the slaughter line.
20 There is a man there who hoists the animal from its back
21 leg on to a hook and chain and the carcass is hoisted up.
22 It is hanging from one of its back leg, it is stunned at
23 this point of time. The same man, he has no access to hand
24 wash facilities. The hand wash facilities that you can see
25 next to the legging transfer platform are high up, about
26 eight feet high up from the floor, so he has no access to
27 those facilities. He has no access to facilities to wash
28 his hands or his instrument.
29
30 He uses a pithing rod which is a long metal instrument.
31 This is put through the stunning hole in the animal's head
32 and it is inserted into the brains, and this is to severe
33 the central nerve system from the rest of the body in order
34 to prevent kicking from the animal.
35
36 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, I have heard about that.
37
38 THE WITNESS: All right. This instrument normally, since it is
39 put inside the body and it actually goes as far down that
40 it does not remain at the head area. Once the head is
41 removed, the area, as far as the pithing rod goes to the
42 neck area of animal. This instrument was handled by the
43 man who handled the back legs of the animal which are
44 extremely dirty and also that he pithed the animal and he
45 did not wash his hands in between, and the pithing rod was
46 kept stuck between a water pipe in the wall in this very
47 extremely dirty area and it was never sterilised. There
48 was no steriliser for it. That is the first point where
49 I think the sterilisation procedures were inadequate.
50
51 The next point, if you go further on the slaughter line,
52 you see where it says "blood trough", the man who bleeds
53 the animal after the stunning stands there. He usually
54 stands at the corner where the ray turns to be able to
55 bleed the animal early enough before it regains
56 consciousness which, well, animals at this type of stunning
57 would not do that anyway, but between the time that is
58 recommended to pass between the stunning and bleeding. He
59 stands there and he bleeds the animals. He sticks his
60 knife inside the animal's neck basically -- I have to say
