Day 094 - 01 Mar 95 - Page 16


     
     1
     2   MS. STEEL:   The inspectors are having pressure on them to work
     3        faster to check through more lines of poultry than they can
     4        reasonably make proper inspections on, are they not?
     5        A.  Not necessarily, no.  What is happening is that the
     6        inspection is being continually left to a high degree to
     7        the meat plants.  The birds are being inspected.  Whether
     8        the inspectors themselves inspect them or the plants
     9        inspect them, that is to what degrees we can debate about
    10        that, but the birds are being inspected.
    11
    12   Q.   You have heard that US DA officials are making those kind
    13        of comments, yes?
    14        A.  Excuse me?
    15
    16   Q.   You have heard ------
    17        A.  What officials?
    18
    19   Q.   US DA inspectors, you have heard that they make those kind
    20        of comment?
    21        A.  I have heard those inspectors make those kind of
    22        claims, which have been proven to be wrong.
    23
    24   Q.   How have they been proven to be wrong?
    25        A.  How?
    26
    27   Q.   Yes.
    28        A.  Just go to a plant and look by yourself.
    29
    30   Q.   How often do you do that?
    31        A.  I have said yesterday, I have been about 15 to 20 times
    32        to Tyson plant.
    33
    34   Q.   In the four years that you have been working at McDonald's?
    35        A.  That is correct.
    36
    37   Q.   So they could slow down the line when you turn up, could
    38        they not?
    39        A.  That is an option, yes.  If need be, that is an option.
    40
    41   Q.   The inspectors have also said things about diseased birds,
    42        thousands of diseased birds, passing from processing lines
    43        to stores every day; is that right?
    44        A.  I have heard about those comments.  They are totally
    45        unsubstantiated.  The entire inspection system, when it was
    46        created, was designed so that was the main priority, to
    47        keep diseased animals from coming into the plants or ending
    48        up in the food chain.  It is their main responsibility.  If
    49        they say they are failing to follow up and comply with the
    50        responsibility, they should be fired. 
    51 
    52   Q.   The inspectors are also saying that thousands of 
    53        contaminated birds are salvaged by cutting away visibly
    54        diseased meat and selling the rest, much of which is also
    55        diseased; have you heard complaints like that?
    56        A.  Again it is the same principle; what people say is not
    57        necessarily a fact.  It has not been documented.
    58
    59   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I will have to see if there is any admissible
    60        evidence of any of these things at the end of the day but,

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