Day 115 - 06 Apr 95 - Page 12
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2 MR. RAMPTON: Describe your experience of electrocuting, is it,
3 wet dogs?
4 A. No, it is done in a different way with dogs.
5
6 Q. What is the method?
7 A. They were put into what was called electrothamator
8 which is a box. They were electrocuted more in the way of
9 -- in McDonald's information indicates that the animals
10 are electrocuted in China and Russia.
11
12 Q. Sorry, I do not understand what -----
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14 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Mr. Rampton, does it really matter? I have
15 quite enough information on pigs when I am concerned with
16 pigs, without dogs and men in electric chairs and so on.
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18 MR. RAMPTON: That is why I raised it and that is why I asked
19 the question, because if an expert is to give evidence on
20 the basis of his experience, my Lord, then it has to be,
21 I would respectfully submit, experience which has some
22 relevance to the matters arising in the case.
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24 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
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26 MR. RAMPTON (To the witness): Did you notice what Mr. Ashley
27 Bowes had to say about the use of nose rings for sows in
28 the field?
29 A. I did.
30
31 Q. Do you accept that that is a proper purpose for which to
32 put rings in the noses of sows?
33 A. Well, no, I think that it is mutilation. It limits the
34 sows foraging and nudging and digging interest. It is a
35 great restraint. It is very easy to be anthropomorphic and
36 think, oh, well, if you had a ring through your nose, what
37 difference would it make? But if that organ is your prime
38 interest in life, that is going to be a considerable
39 restraint.
40
41 Obviously, if the animal is in imperfect conditions, that
42 it has not adapted to properly, there are mutilations that,
43 if you like, reduce the stress because the sows do not
44 really understand how they should adapt, so it is
45 imperfect. I can see the reason for it and I can see that
46 in those imperfect conditions it may be necessary, like
47 other mutilations.
48
49 Q. Explain what is imperfect about an insulated farrowing arc
50 in a field in Norfolk?
51 A. Oh, I was talking about the nose ring.
52
53 Q. No, no, the reason is, is it not, Dr. Long, that Mr. Bowes
54 and his brother want to avoid too high a piglet mortality
55 or keeping it as low as they can by preventing the sow from
56 digging too deep a nest into which the piglets may fall and
57 be suffocated of squashed ---
58 A. Yes.
59
60 Q. That is the reason, is it not? Tell me about the
