Day 090 - 16 Feb 95 - Page 63
1 A. Yes, I have read this.
2
3 MR. MORRIS: He said: "Birds with a gait score of four or five
4 should be culled". In the sample of 102 birds examined on
5 19th April 1993, there were no birds with a gait score of 4
6 or 5. I will just do it in percentages. Seven per cent
7 with a gait score of 3; 24 per cent with a gait score of 2;
8 30 per cent with a gait score of 1 and 39 per cent with a
9 gait score of nil, which he defines as "5, unable to walk"
10 down to "nil, for a bird with perfect gait". Obviously the
11 ones that are unable to walk are being culled as you find
12 them or they are lying on the ground unable to walk. But
13 would you accept his grading system between 0 and 5, that 0
14 in that scale would be a perfectly healthy -----
15
16 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I really do, if I may pick up what your
17 Lordship said a moment ago, I know that Dr. Pattison has
18 read Dr. Gregory's evidence, but your Lordship will
19 remember -- I am not going to recite it because that would
20 not be fair -- what Dr. Gregory said about the specific
21 nature of each gait score, including, in particular, those
22 from 3 to 0.
23
24 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. We have got 4 to 5 "unable to walk";
25 what was 3?
26
27 MR. MORRIS: He did not in his statement define 3.
28
29 MR. RAMPTON: No, he did in his evidence.
30
31 MR. JUSTICE BELL: He did in his evidence. He went further, you
32 see.
33
34 MR. MORRIS: He defines 0 as a "perfect gait". That is what he
35 says in his statement, i.e. a perfectly healthy -----
36
37 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You have only to walk over Waterloo Bridge to
38 see lots of perfectly healthy people with imperfect gaits.
39 There was a bit more sophistication to it than that. That
40 is what troubles me.
41
42 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, in effect, it came to this, I think, that
43 the interface, the critical interface, for welfare fell
44 within gait score 3.
45
46 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You see, there was something more like that.
47 What I suggest we do is why do we not break off now, but by
48 the time we come back in the morning, and if someone can
49 find the transcript reference, if this is thought to be an
50 important point. I may be wrong, but it was not my
51 recollection that his conclusion was that 61 per cent could
52 be said, as simply as it has been put, to suffer from leg
53 problems. So, what I suggest, reflect on that and if you
54 want to carry on the point in the morning, I think it would
55 be right just to put what Dr. Gregory's description was.
56
57 MS. STEEL: Could I just ask one question?
58
59 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
60
