Day 066 - 14 Dec 94 - Page 59


     
     1
     2   Q.   Did you read his account of his visit to the establishment
     3        of Bowes & Sons in Norfolk?
     4        A.  Yes, I did.
     5
     6   Q.   Was there anything about that which was contradictory of
     7        your own experience throughout the world, can you remember?
     8        A.  No, contradictory, no.
     9
    10   Q.   You described that plan of an English beef slaughtering
    11        line, or beef treatment line, processing line, as fairly
    12        typical.  How did it seem that Dr. Gregory's account of
    13        what he saw in Norfolk fit in with your general experience?
    14        A.  It is fairly typical, and if you look also at the
    15        figures that he got, the results that he had from the tests
    16        and evaluations that he had, is fairly typical from the
    17        ones we have seen for suppliers that supply McDonald's.
    18
    19   Q.   Yes, I was going to ask you that, whether you were
    20        concerned to any extent that there was an unduly high
    21        proportion of pigs, a significant proportion of pigs, that
    22        were imperfectly stunned by the method that is used of
    23        electrical stunning, I mean, in your travels and in what
    24        you have learnt about the slaughtering operation?
    25        A.  Normally, what I have seen is a stunning that they use
    26        where they use a lower voltage, and that would be something
    27        that is -- that you would find normally outside of the US,
    28        I mean, outside of the UK.
    29
    30   Q.   Outside the UK?
    31        A.  Sorry, yes.
    32
    33   Q.   Can I pass now, please, to chickens?  You have told us that
    34        in the USA Tysons do everything from pre-conception to the
    35        finished products?
    36        A.  That is correct.
    37
    38   Q.   But I want to concentrate, if I may, first of all, on
    39        egg-laying chickens which are not part of the broiler
    40        operation; they do not go into the McNuggetts, as far as I
    41        know, do they?
    42        A.  That is correct.
    43
    44   Q.   I think you told us that the egg-layers for McDonald's in
    45        the United States were owned by a company called Cargill;
    46        is that right?
    47        A.  That is correct.
    48
    49   Q.   In what kind of housing are Cargill's egg-layers kept?
    50        A.  They have different housing facilities.  So, you could 
    51        find laying hens in battery cages, that some people refer 
    52        to them, with normally four birds per cage where the eggs 
    53        fall into a channel and are separated automatically from
    54        the birds, where they are supplied with a feed, water and
    55        where the environment is controlled.
    56
    57   Q.   Which sort of accommodation do the chickens which lay eggs
    58        for McDonald's live in?
    59        A.  They live in a cage that is cleaned routinely.
    60

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