Day 113 - 03 Apr 95 - Page 28
1
2 Q. Dr. Long, hold on a minute. These hydraulic
3 platforms, when did they start to come in as a sort of
4 alternative?
5 A. In this country, I would think they became commoner
6 about five years ago. They do go back earlier, on the
7 Continent they have had them for longer. But, in this
8 country, to some extent, as welfarists, what we have tried
9 to do with the design of markets and also at
10 slaughterhouses is to have the dock where the animals come,
11 the dock is raised so it is level with the tail board, so
12 the animals come off level rather than being -- rather than
13 having to negotiate a steep ramp.
14
15 Q. There was one question I was going to ask you about some of
16 the dairy cows: When transported, are they pregnant?
17 A. They can certainly be. What you have to bear in mind
18 all the time is we have quotas. Farmers have to look at
19 quotas with their milk production. They will lose profit
20 if they over-produce. So, they are all the time trying to
21 keep within quota. They may fall back a bit when they are
22 looking now, of course, at the possibility of using bovine
23 somatotrophin or at least the trade is. It has been
24 introduced in the USA but not yet in the UK or in Europe.
25
26 But the point is that if the market suddenly becomes
27 attractive, well, then the farmer may -- he may not even
28 know if the heifer is pregnant or not -- so he may sell her
29 and then it is found that she is pregnant at the
30 slaughterhouse.
31
32 I should say there is a small trade in faecal calves, that
33 is, calves that are actually born, if you like, by a crude
34 sort of cesarian in the slaughterhouses. Those are used
35 for pharmaceutical purposes. I would mention this to you
36 because they may not be used for medical products because
37 of the threat of BSE. So, that is an effect that
38 illustrates how serious BSE is generally. It is,
39 therefore, I would make an illusion to the fact that
40 medical authorities regard it as a possible risk to health.
41
42 MR. RAMPTON: Oh, dear, Mr. Morris does not really seem to pay
43 any attention your Lordship's ruling.
44
45 MR. MORRIS: I did not say anything.
46
47 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Quite frankly, Mr. Rampton, it was a sentence
48 which just came in in a chain of narrative. I can
49 perfectly well, for the purposes of this matter, put it on
50 one side. There are bound to be leaks and surplages all
51 the time in a case like this.
52
53 MR. MORRIS: I think we have dealt with quite a substantial
54 amount of concerns up to slaughter. I just want to go back
55 over, you talked about castration. Are there other similar
56 kinds of operations that are done for production,
57 benefiting the production system?
58 A. Disbudding is done, that is, with animals that are
59 going to develop horns.
60
