Day 115 - 06 Apr 95 - Page 31
1 interpretation of previous evidence as put in a question.
2
3 MR. MORRIS: Yes.
4
5 MR. JUSTICE BELL: So do not concern yourself with that.
6
7 MR. MORRIS: If I can just point out, on page 58, line 47 of
8 that day he says: "We will not use any drug promoting
9 antibiotics", I believe that is "growth promoting".
10
11 MR. JUSTICE BELL: We will have to look at that more carefully
12 in due course.
13
14 MR. MORRIS: But they were using them for five years previously
15 anyway until they were banned, that is, growth promoting
16 hormones. That is the first thing.
17 (To the witness): The second thing is there is something
18 you said that did not come out on the transcript, about the
19 fail safe electrical stunning equipment. You said it would
20 help to reduce the doubts or something, you said, if it
21 works well. That was not on the transcript. Is that what
22 you said?
23 A. I did. First of all, I must emphasise that I am not
24 sure that we are talking about exactly the same thing,
25 because it is in an experimental stage. That is why I had
26 a reservation.
27
28 Q. OK. The other thing Mr. Rampton put to you was the Farm
29 Animal Welfare Council's paragraph 80, I believe it was --
30 this is the 1984 -- on page 22. If you recall, that was
31 about the prohibition on the killing of animals in the
32 presence ---
33 A. Yes.
34
35 Q. -- of their peers, or whatever, if indeed they are their
36 peers anyway. That is in the context of a whole section,
37 is it not, on the horrors, you could call it, of the
38 stunning pens; is that correct?
39 A. It is primarily, I would say, and there is so much
40 debate and discussion I must really give my own impression,
41 that it is the noise. If you look at legalistic
42 definitions, it can be argued that if a pig sees one of the
43 bovine species being slaughtered, is that breaking the
44 rules?
45
46 We had a lot of trouble earlier, I do not know quite when
47 it was, there was a Walls factory in Harlesden actually
48 slaughtering pigs, and had lot of trouble there because
49 they were slaughtering them in groups. There was a lot of
50 commotion. But I have seen other places where they do not
51 seem to mind so much, there does seem to be this calming
52 effect.
53
54 I would say that it depends so much on the general layout
55 and the watching what goes on, because pigs are, as I say,
56 particularly pigs, and flighty animals like deer (which
57 I know are not concerned here), but we have, obviously, had
58 to pay a lot of attention latterly to this again. You
59 really have to assess what is the noise, what is the
60 commotion, how agitated are the men and how agitated are
