Day 111 - 30 Mar 95 - Page 31

     
     1        moving line, where the animals move continuously.
     2
     3   Q.   I understand that but I thought you said that he had to go
     4        to the steriliser on the back wall. It may make not a jot
     5        of difference to the point are you making, but he could use
     6        the horn cutter steriliser?
     7        A.  As I said earlier, the man who is pictured under the
     8        bleed hoist, he is not the one who bleeds the animal.  He
     9        is the one who hoists the back leg and using the pithing
    10        rod.  The man who bleeds animal is not pictured and he
    11        would be in the corner of the abattoir, the upper left-hand
    12        corner, where there is nothing pictured there.  He would be
    13        standing there.
    14
    15   Q.   I will not pursue it because it may make no difference.
    16        A.  The following point, going down the slaughter line
    17        again we then come to the dehiding area where the hide
    18        puller is.
    19
    20   MR. MORRIS:  The hide puller?
         A.  Yes, it pulls the hide off the back of the animal.  By
    22        this stage the animal has already been dehided basically to
    23        an extent that the front of animal and its feet have been
    24        dehided and the only part the hide puller has is to pull
    25        the hide off the animal's back basically.  The only problem
    26        with this hide puller is that the chains that are used to
    27        fasten the hide, the corners of the hide, on to the hide
    28        puller are not sterilised.  They should be sterilised since
    29        there is a great risk that they touch.
    30
    31   Q.   Touch more than one carcass?
    32        A.  Yes, they touch every carcass.  They are definitely
    33        dirty.  They go with the hide into the hide and skins room
    34        and are returned to the huts from there.
    35
    36   Q.   They come back from the hide and skin room?
    37        A.  Yes.
    38
    39   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Shall we pause there?
    40
                        (Luncheon Adjournment)
    42
    43   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  The last matter you dealt with were the
    44        chains at dehiding.
    45
    46   MR. MORRIS:  Yes.  Ms. Hovi, could you continue through your the
    47        slaughter line, your concerns?
    48        A.  Yes.  The next point, obviously, we come to the
    49        detained and condemned rooms which often in many abattoirs
    50        they are a common room.  It is acceptable to have a room 
    51        that is used for both detained and condemned carcasses. 
    52 
    53        This room was not refrigerated, which is a statutory
    54        requirement, and this, obviously, caused a lot of concern
    55        to me because I was responsible for dealing with the
    56        carcasses that could not be passed immediately through the
    57        inspection as fit for human consumption or that had to be
    58        detained or condemned directly.
    59
    60        The great concern was not really about the condemned