Day 068 - 16 Dec 94 - Page 64
1 does not mean they will harm the animals. I have seen the
2 facilities and they are well kept. The facility is a US DA
3 approved facility. There are inspectors from the United
4 States that go there and review that. It is part of their
5 responsibility to take care of those issues.
6
7 Q. So if they are US DA approved and yet they consider they do
8 not fulfil quite a number of these categories which you
9 have extracted from the Humane Slaughter Act, would it be
10 fair to say that US DA seems to be mainly concerned with
11 hygiene?
12 A. No, that is incorrect. The US DA Inspector is
13 responsible for welfare and responsible for carrying out
14 the Humane Slaughter Act, he has the authority to stop
15 production. He has the authority to disapprove the plant,
16 and before the plant is even approved, there are a lot of
17 people to look at everything, from the facilities and all
18 their requirements. It would be just like you have a plant
19 in the United States.
20
21 Q. So when you sent out this questionnaire you got all these
22 replies back, some with lots of yes's and some with lots of
23 no's, how did it help you in fact?
24
25 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Mr. Morris, you know it was sent out because
26 of this litigation, and whether it helped Dr. Gomez
27 Gonzalez or not is neither here nor there, is if it gave
28 certain information which you now have about practices
29 around the world.
30
31 MR. MORRIS: Let us just finish these off.
32
33 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If you can finish Coope Montecillos or this
34 one within about the next five minutes, do so; if you do
35 not think you will be able to, we will call it a day and
36 you can come back to it on Monday.
37
38 MR. MORRIS: When you received these forms back and you got
39 no's, did you take any action on all these plants?
40 A. Yes, I did.
41
42 Q. What action did you take, in general? You went to visit
43 them or asked them to improve?
44 A. No, I asked more for clarification. If I felt there
45 was a need for me to go there, then I would go there. Just
46 like in the case of Costa Rica, I discussed these results
47 with a lot of people just to clarify and make sure about
48 the responses and their conditions, just like Mr. Paul
49 Simmons.
50
51 MR. MORRIS: I do not think I can finish the rest off in five
52 minutes.
53
54 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, I would rather you stop now.
55
56 MR. RAMPTON: Can I mention two things? My Lord, in the
57 affidavit, your Lordship asked about the date of the ruling
58 that Mr. Nicholson mentioned. The 25th is a typographical
59 error for 27th May. The order bears the same date as the
60 ruling.
