Day 113 - 03 Apr 95 - Page 25
1
2 Q. The actual droving in the market, is that done by the
3 owners of the cattle, or is that done by people that work
4 at the markets?
5 A. Could be. This is a point that we have been concerned
6 about. It is not always easy to identify who it is who is
7 doing the droving, who it is employs them. So, that if you
8 have a complaint it is difficult to tie it down. So, it
9 may be the people who have brought the animals in, it may
10 be the farmer himself, or it may be the staff of the
11 market.
12
13 You might like to know a few weeks ago I actually witnessed
14 them taking half an hour to get a cow on to a lorry. She
15 just stood there. That is over a half a tonne of animal
16 that will not move -- very difficult.
17
18 Q. Let us talk about loading and unloading again. Apart from
19 the use of sticks and goads and cattle that are reluctant
20 to go, what are the other concerns about loading and
21 unloading in terms of the welfare of the animal?
22 A. Mainly, the mixing of animals from different sources,
23 because they spend a certain amount of time jostling and
24 competing. Although many of them are castrates, they still
25 show signs of, I would say, male behaviour -- you do get
26 the same sort of troubles with females, I must say -- and
27 this causes stress.
28
29 You can actually measure this. Dr. Gregory's group --
30 I know Dr. Gregory quite well -- they have looked at what
31 are called the biochemical variables which are ways of
32 testing stress in animals. They have looked at the
33 stresses on cattle -- they have looked at other animals as
34 well -- during these periods of loading and unloading and
35 transport. You do get a definite response that these
36 animals are subjected to stress and fear and terror.
37
38 Q. You said about the mixing, so how regularly would it be
39 that, effectively, animals together during transport or
40 whatever, would not be a peer group, they would be jumbled
41 up from different -----
42 A. Very likely when they leave the market they might
43 arrive at the market coming from one farm where they have
44 been together. But when they go to market they would be
45 sold at different weights to different buyers, so at that
46 stage they would be mixed. That would cause some commotion
47 as, as I say, they achieved their pecking order.
48
49 Q. During the actual transport itself on the lorries, what are
50 the welfare problems that you have identified?
51 A. I identified those that have been very widely canvassed
52 over the transport of sheep and calves. Those are loading
53 and unloading.
54
55 Q. Hang on. Are we talking about cattle?
56 A. Yes, we are because they are the same things. It does
57 not matter really whether they go to France or whether they
58 go from the south west of this country to Scotland, a
59 journey of, say, 400 miles is a journey of 400 miles. The
60 animals do not know about the frontiers. The problem that
