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Chief Justice Bell's Verdict
19th June 1997
McDonald's Corporation
First Plaintiff
and
McDonald's Restaurants Limited
Second Plaintiff
VS
Helen Marie Steel
First Defendant
and
David Morris
Second Defendant
before
The Hon. Mr Justice Bell

SUMMARY OF THE JUDGEMENT
(read in Open Court on Thursday, 19th June 1997)

The rearing and slaughter of animals

After advertising, the leaflet turns to the rearing and slaughter of animals.

In my view the leaflet means that the Plaintiffs are culpably responsible for cruel practices in the rearing and slaughter of some of the animals which are used to produce their food. In particular, some of the animals, especially chickens and pigs, spend their whole lives without access to open air and sunshine and without freedom of movement; animals waiting to be slaughtered often struggle to escape; cattle waiting to be slaughtered become frantic as they watch the animal before them in the killing-line being prodded, beaten electrocuted and knifed; and the methods used to stun the animals are so inefficient that animals are frequently still fully conscious when they have their throats cut.

Birds are animals.

The charge is clearly defamatory. It is expressed as statements of fact.

My conclusions so far as justification of the defamatory message of this part of the leaflet complained of is concerned, are as follows.

Laying hens which are used to produce eggs for the First and Second Plaintiffs spend their whole lives in battery cages without access to open air or sunlight and without freedom of movement. I do not find the lack of open air or sunshine to be cruel, but the severe restriction of movement is cruel and the First and Second Plaintiffs are culpably responsible for that cruel practice.

Broiler chickens which are used to produce meat for the First and Second Plaintiffs' food spend their whole lives in broiler houses without access to open air or sunshine, I do no find this in itself cruel. However, they spend the last few days of their lives with very little room to move. The severe restriction of movement over those last few days is cruel and the First and Second Plaintiffs are culpably responsible for that cruel practice.

A small, but not insignificant proportion of the sows which produce pigs which contribute to the supply of pork for the Second Plaintiff's food in the U.K. spend virtually the whole of their lives in dry sow stalls, with no access to the open air and sunshine and without freedom of movement. I do not find the lack of open air or sunshine to be cruel, but the severe restriction of movement is cruel and the Second Plaintiff is culpably responsible for that cruel practice.

Some pigs which are used to make the Second Plaintiff's food in the U.K. spend the whole of their lives indoors and all or virtually all of them spend a significant part of their lives indoors. The situation is probably the same for the pigs which are used to make the Second Plaintiff's food in the U.S. On the evidence which I have heard about their living conditions, I do no find this to be cruel, however.

It was not shown that cattle which are used to produce the Plaintiffs' food spend any significant part of their lives without access to open air and sunshine and without freedom of movement.

Nevertheless in my JUDGEMENT the restriction of movement of laying hens throughout their lives in the U.K. and the U.S., and of broiler chickens in their last days in the U.K. and the U.S., and of some sows for virtually the whole of their lives in the U.K. is quite enough to justify the first particular charge of culpable responsibility for cruel practices in the way some of the animals spend their lives.

Although many cattle are frightened by the noise and unfamiliar surroundings of the abattoirs in which they are slaughtered and some cattle are urged on by electric prods, the charges that animals waiting to be slaughtered often struggle to escape and that cattle waiting to be slaughtered become frantic as they watch the animal before them in the killing-line being prodded, beaten, electrocuted and knifed are not justified so far as animals which are used to produced the Plaintiffs' food are concerned.

It was not shown that cattle or pigs which are used to produced the Plaintiffs' food are frequently still fully conscious when they have their throats cut. A proportion of the chickens which are used to produce the First and Second Plaintiffs' food are still fully conscious when they have their throats cut. This is a cruel practice for which the Plaintiffs are culpably responsible. The proportion of such chickens is very small, but the number of chickens is so large that the allegation that animals are frequently still fully conscious when they have their throats cut is justified.

Although not all the particular charges are justified, in my overall JUDGEMENT those that are justified, relating to the restriction of movement of battery hens, broiler chickens and chickens who have their throats cut while still fully conscious are sufficient to justify the general charge that the First and Second Plaintiffs are culpably responsible for cruel practices in the rearing and slaughter of some of the animals which are used to produce their food.

There are other cruel practices affecting chickens which are used to provide the Plaintiffs' food; calcium deficit resulting in osteopaenia in battery hens, the restriction of broiler breeders' feed with the result that they go hungry although bred for appetite, leg problems in broilers bred for weight, rough handling of broilers taken for slaughter and pre-stun electric shocks suffered by broilers on the way to slaughter. Those matters, for which the Second Plaintiff or both Plaintiffs are in my JUDGEMENT culpably responsible, go to strengthen my view that the sting of this part of the leaflet to the effect that the First and Second Plaintiffs are culpably responsible for cruel practices in the rearing and slaughter of some of the animals which are used to produce their food is justified, true in substance and in fact.

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