Day 091 - 17 Feb 95 - Page 60


     
     1        glaringly obvious like it is has keeled over or not moving
     2        out of the way when you are walking?
     3        A.  They are experienced people.  They can detect whether
     4        anything is normal or abnormal.
     5
     6   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Is there a sort of motto like:  "If in doubt,
     7        cull"?  There obviously is not a lot of picking up a bird
     8        or feeling it or examining it?
     9        A.  I think the general advice is that if a bird appears to
    10        be suffering in any way, then it should be culled.
    11        If it has got a twisted leg or if it is just sitting not
    12        growing properly, that would be classed as a cull and
    13        certainly the advice would be to remove that.
    14
    15   MS. STEEL:   When you walk into a shed the birds move away, do
    16        they not?
    17        A.  They do.
    18
    19   Q.   They all go and huddle together?
    20        A.  Yes, that would be the reaction to a stranger.  The
    21        poultry men or the farm manager who walks the sheds every
    22        day, generally you see them walking up and down amongst the
    23        birds and they do not really move very much.
    24
    25   Q.   They do not move out of the way at all?
    26        A.  They do move out of the way but they do not move as
    27        much as it is a stranger.
    28
    29   Q.   But it would be natural for them to huddle together in that
    30        situation even when it is a stockman?
    31        A.  It would be natural for them to move away from somebody
    32        walking through the shed, yes.
    33
    34   Q.   As a consequence, they would be fairly huddled together?
    35        A.  They could be, yes.
    36
    37   Q.   In those circumstances, you would not necessarily be able
    38        to see that, I do not know, the legs were not A1?
    39        A.  I think you do not observe every individual bird but,
    40        with experience, certainly you pick them up if there are
    41        any, if there is anything abnormal going on.
    42
    43   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Is there a particular point you want to deal
    44        with now?
    45
    46   MS. STEEL:  I will just put to the witness, if I put to you that
    47        it is completely impossible to deal and check for the
    48        welfare of individual birds using that system, unless
    49        something is blatantly obvious, would you accept that?
    50        A.  No, I would not because I think, with experience, and 
    51        these people tend to do these jobs for many, many years, 
    52        they do very much have an affinity with the stock where 
    53        they know if anything is normal or abnormal.  I have seen
    54        many situations where they do pick out individuals that are
    55        affected within the -- you have only got to move amongst
    56        poultry to know if they move as a group.  They will,
    57        generally, the healthy ones will do that, if one is sick it
    58        will normally hang back and not move from the group.  So it
    59        becomes very obvious if one is abnormal.
    60

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