Day 114 - 04 Apr 95 - Page 09

     
     1                      DR. ALAN GIBSON, recalled.
     2                       Examined by the Defendants.
     3
     4   THE WITNESS:  Good morning.  I might say, my Lord, for
     5        Mr. Rampton's convenience, if he would like to call me back
     6        later I would be quite willing to do so.
     7
     8   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, I am grateful for that, but I hope it
     9        will be unnecessary.  The trouble is when you leave today
    10        we may not be able to tell you whether that is so or not,
    11        Dr. Long.  Yes, Mr. Morris?
    12
    13   MR. MORRIS:  Can we just quickly go to page 4 -- I will try to
    14        skate through it -- this is the Farm Animal Welfare Council
    15        Report, 1984.
    16
    17   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, Report on the Welfare of Livestock (Red
    18        Meat Animals) at the time of Slaughter.
    19
    20   MR. MORRIS:  Dr. Long, do you remember this document being
         produced at the time?
    22        A.  Yes, I contributed comments for its preparation and
    23        I remember it being published.
    24
    25   Q.   Was this document of any significance?
    26        A.  Yes.  It has been -- some of the matters have been
    27        adopted by the government since.  It was fairly well
    28        received by the government.  That did not mean that the
    29        government was going to act very quickly, but just one
    30        point that comes up somewhere later in it that did give us
    31        a good deal of pleasure, is the matter of tenderising meat,
    32        an injection into animals before they are slaughtered in
    33        order to tenderise poorer quality meat.  That did cause
    34        distress to animals.  The report made a specific
    35        recommendation about that and that has been acted on.
    36
    37   Q.   That has been banned now, has it?
    38        A.  Yes, in this country.
    39
    40   Q.   I will try to do this as speedily as possible.  On page 4,
         at the bottom of the page, point 10, it referred to over
    42        1,000 slaughterhouses operated in Great Britain at that
    43        time.  Then in point 11 it says in 1968/1969 there were
    44        over 2,000.  Is that your understanding in terms of the way
    45        the number of slaughterhouses have been reduced over the
    46        years?
    47        A.  Yes, it has become a welfare problem because it
    48        involves more transport.  A number of small
    49        slaughter  -----
    50 
    51   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Dr. Long, answer Mr. Morris' questions. 
    52 
    53   MR. MORRIS:  If you can answer "yes" or "no", it would be
    54        helpful.
    55
    56   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Although I said it was a prompt for asking
    57        you about things, a prompt just to answer his answer.
    58
    59   THE WITNESS:  Would you mind just repeating the question?
    60