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Manager of Meat Products in the International Quality Assurance/International Purchasing Department of McDonald's Corporation and has served in this position for just over two years.
Went to the Texas A & M University where he graduated with a BSc in Animal Engineering.
Also has an MSc in Agronomy and a PhD in Food Science and Technology both from Texas A & M.
Has worked for Oscar Mayer, also has experience working in the meat industry in Asia, Latin America, the U.S., Europe and Canada.
1. I am a Manager of Meat Products in the International Quality Assurance/International Purchasing Department of McDonald's Corporation and have served in this position for just over two years.
2. I went to the Texas A & M University where I graduated with a BSc in Animal Engineering. I also have a MSc in Agronomy and a PhD in Food Science and Technology both from Texas A & M. This means that I have studied and have knowledge of the raising, feeding and processing of animals.
3. Since leaving college I have worked for Oscar Mayer, one of the leaders in quality meat processing in the USA and I also have experience working in the meat industry in Asia, Latin America, the U.S., Europe and Canada.
4. In my present position I am one of three people at McDonald's with responsibility for assuring the uniform quality of the meat products used by all McDonald's Restaurants in the 66 countries in which McDonald's operates. Part of my job is to visit these countries to give general assistance and training to McDonald's meat suppliers and also to help them develop the technology necessary to process the hamburgers. All McDonald's suppliers worldwide have to be approved initially by McDonald' Corporation and they will subsequently be audited by the Quality Assurance Department to ensure that they continue to comply with the requirements set out in McDonald's International Food Product Specification "the Food Specification"). The aim of this is to ensure that the quality of the meat products used by McDonald's worldwide is of a uniformly high standard. It is also part of my job to carry out this auditing.
5. One of the requirements of the Food Specification is that all meat supplied to McDonald's must be supplied from a source which complies with the federal regulations of that particular country governing the slaughter and processing of animals. In the USA all McDonald's meat products are supplied by meat processing plants which are governed by the United States Department of Agriculture regulations and by the Humane Slaughter Act.
6. I have seen and read the allegations made by the London Greenpeace group contained in the leaflet entitled "What's Wrong with McDonald's" and the pleadings in this action. From my personal knowledge the allegations relating to meat and animal welfare are inaccurate and I will address each of these below.
7. Firstly it is alleged that chickens and pigs spend their lives in the entirely artificial conditions of huge factory farms, with no access to fresh air to sunshine and no freedom of movement. This is not so. Whilst it is true that some chickens and some pigs are raised in farms, in the majority of countries worldwide pigs are kept in pens with direct access to sunshine and in all cases pigs will have access to fresh air and will have freedom of movement. Whilst chickens may not have direct access to sunshine, they do have access to fresh air (in the USA, they will be kept in an air conditioned environment) and in the case of broilers they will not be kept in conditions where they will get hock burns or ulcerated feet. The overriding concern when raising chickens or pigs is to get them to a specified weight as quickly and efficiently as possible and obviously the more comfortable their surroundings the more they eat and the quicker they reach the desired weight.
8. With regard to methods of slaughter of chickens, the allegations made are totally untrue. In the USA the method of slaughtering chickens is for them to be stunned first and then passed through a chain where their throats are cut. They will then pass over a bleeding station where all the blood will be completely bled out of them. No chicken should reach the scalder alive. At every single plant in the USA which supplies McDonald's there will be a Federal Inspector who will carry out checks for any chickens which are not properly bled out. Where that is found to be the case the chicken will be removed and condemned. In addition to the Federal Inspector there is also normally one of the plant's employees checking the bleeding tray to ensure that the chickens have been completely bled out.
This method of slaughter is normally very similar in all developed countries. In a few under developed countries the slaughtering of chickens is done manually but even in those countries it is certainly not the case, as alleged, that 30% of broilers will not be properly killed and will be alive when they enter the scalding tanks.
9. When chickens are gathered for slaughter they are lifted up by their legs, however this does not frequently cause dislocation of joints and other injuries such as broken wings. If chickens suffer such injuries this will cause bruising. It is the job of the Federal Inspector to check for bruised chickens and any parts which are found to be bruised are automatically condemned. It is therefore counter productive to maltreat the chickens at the plant. Some of the countries in which McDonald's operates do not require a Federal Inspector at the plant but as it is part of the Food Specification that bruised meat will not be purchased it is again counterproductive for the chickens to be maltreated.
10. With regard to the slaughter of cattle, the methods of slaughter used in the U.S.A. are very similar to those which are used in the U.K.
11. It is alleged that Pigs are usually killed by using high voltage head to body stunning which causes cardiac arrest. It is true that pigs are stunned by using high voltage stunning but this does not cause cardiac arrest. It is very important that a pig's heart continues to pump in order to pump all of the blood out of the body. If all of the blood is not removed then the pigs will be condemned and so obviously it is not in the supplier's interest to cause cardiac arrest.
1. I make this second supplementary statement in order to comment on a number of the allegations which the Defendants make in their Re-Amended Defence.
2. Firstly, dealing with the allegation at paragraph 4 on page 6 concerning the use of growth promoting antibiotics in cattle, it is not a part of McDonald's product specifications that cattle used to supply beef to us be free from growth promoters or antibiotics. In the USA both growth promoters and antibiotics are given to cattle. This is perfectly legal and is governed by the USDA Regulations. These state that any growth promoters and/or antibiotics used have to be scientifically proven not to have any harmful effect on humans. As a further safeguard the Regulations specify a strict period of time prior to slaughter in which antibiotics and/or growth promoters must not be used. The growth promoting antibiotics, Virginia, Mycin and Avoparcin to which the Defendants refer can be given to cattle in the USA. In Europe the position is different and McDonald's does have a policy of not accepting beef from cattle which have been given growth promoting hormones. The reason for this is that European Community Legislation prohibits their use.
3. With regard to the allegation at paragraph 8 on page 6 it is correct that in 1980 Tyson's did develop a new breed of chicken which is sometimes referred to as 'Mr. McDonald'. It was developed in order to improve the yield of boneless meat. However, whilst it is larger than the standard supermarket broiler, it is certainly not twice as big. Other chicken producers all over the world have developed similar types of larger chickens.
4 . With regard to the allegation at paragraph 1 on page 6, whilst I am unable to comment on the specific practices in l992, I can confirm that Con Agra do supply beef to McDonald's suppliers and that the slaughtering operation described in this allegation is a federal 'USDA' approved slaughterhouse in the USA with a good sanitary record. Whilst electric prods are used to direct cattle into chutes, the electric charge is a very low one and the use of the prods means that the cattle are directed into the chutes, the quicker than would otherwise be the case, with the consequence that there is less opportunity for them to become stressed.
5. Lastly, concerning the allegations at paragraph 8 and 9 on page 5, I do not know whether our PR or advertising agencies made the statements attributed to them. However it is certainly true that McDonald's uses an enormous amount of beef and is probably the single largest user in the world. I attach at Appendix 1 a document showing the volumes of beef consumed by McDonald's in the USA in 1988, 1989 and 1990. I have not been able to find the figures for 1991. At appendix 2 I attach some statistics which I obtained from the USDA and the Australian Meat and Livestock Corporation respectively which show the world beef production figures from 1970 to 1992.
| date signed: |
August 19, 1994
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| supplementary statement signed: |
June 6, 1993
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| status: |
Appeared in court
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exhibits: Not applicable/ available
transcripts of court appearances:
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