Day 200 - 12 Dec 95 - Page 08

     
     1   Q.   No.  You phoned the vet and you tell us in your statement
     2        that the vet was there within an hour?
     3        A.  Yes, I met the vet.
     4
     5   Q.   Do you know whether the farmer has been prosecuted or not?
     6        A.  I do not know.
     7
     8   Q.   You would have followed it up, would you not?  Would you
     9        not be anxious to know whether he had been prosecuted?
    10        A.  For this occasion, sorry, I thought you meant prior to
    11        this.
    12
    13   Q.   Yes, your complaint?
    14        A.  I phoned up the day after to find out what had happened
    15        and what Mr. Montague had found.  He had submitted a
    16        report.  They said they could not tell me anything more.
    17        So I phoned up Mrs. Williams, the Senior Animal Health
    18        Inspector, and she said Mr. Montague's report had been
    19        submitted and they would not be prosecuting.  They had
    20        taken action -- they had taken action but they would not be
         prosecuting.
    22
    23   Q.   The fact is that this farmer did not have time, as it were,
    24        because he had no notice to clean up his act before the vet
    25        got there; the vet would have seen what you saw?
    26        A.  Yes.
    27
    28   Q.   It seemed to have been pouring with rain that day?
    29        A.  It was.
    30
    31   Q.   How was the air temperature outside?
    32        A.  It was, well, quite warm.
    33
    34   Q.   You say, nonetheless, despite that rain that we saw on the
    35        video the shed was unbearably hot?
    36        A.  It was very, very hot -- unbearably hot.
    37
    38   Q.   The birds which we saw in your film looking distressed,
    39        injured, moribund -- call it what you like -- all seemed to
    40        be a good deal smaller than the healthy birds, did they
         not?  Do you agree?
    42        A.  I cannot say I noticed.
    43
    44   Q.   You must have looked at the film quite often?
    45        A.  They were, sort of, huddled up.  I mean, they could not
    46        drag themselves to the feeds.  They were probably starving.
    47
    48   Q.   Do you know enough about chickens to know about runts?
    49        A.  Yes.  These were not runts.
    50 
    51   Q.   Really? 
    52        A.  No. 
    53
    54   Q.   Do you know that ----
    55        A.  They were not that small compared to the other birds on
    56        average in the shed.
    57
    58   Q.   So if we came to the conclusion that some of them were no
    59        more than half the size of the healthy birds, you would say
    60        still they were not runts?