Day 289 - 29 Oct 96 - Page 15
1 into crates in modules and transported by lorry to the
2 slaughter plant an average distance of twenty five to 30
3 miles, sometimes up to seventy miles. That was day 89,
4 page 50, line 12. He said that the kind of injuries which
5 birds may suffer in the process of catching included
6 dislocation of the hip joint, which can cause a hemorrhage,
7 broken legs, crushed heads - for example if their head was
8 caught between the crate and the module when the drawers
9 were being shut. Dr. Pattison claimed that such injuries
10 were not common.
11
12 However, you may remember that John Bruton, who was a
13 former catcher for Sun Valley between 1987 to 1993, said
14 that such injuries were a regular occurrence as the
15 catchers were not given enough time to take care with the
16 birds. That was despite the fact that they voiced their
17 concerns to the company. This was particularly so after
18 the company reduced the number of catchers to cut costs.
19 He said that a team of six catchers was expected to load a
20 lorry with between 4,000 to 6,000 birds approximately every
21 45 minutes. The references for that are actually the
22 references I have got for Dr. Pattison.
23
24 MR JUSTICE BELL: It does not matter who it is from. What is
25 the reference?
26
27 MS. STEEL: Day 102, page 14, line 56 and day 102, page 28,
28 line 38. That one seems fine. He said on day 102, page
29 13, line 4, that it takes approximately five to six hours
30 to clear a shed of approximately 20,000 birds.
31
32 Can I just say in general about John Bruton that I have no
33 doubt at all that Mr. Rampton is going to try to discredit
34 his evidence by saying he has a grudge against the
35 company. Mr. Bruton did actually say in evidence that he
36 did not have a grudge against the company, despite the fact
37 that he had been sacked at a time when the company was
38 basically busy laying off workers in order to cut costs of
39 the clearing sheds and transporting the birds to the
40 slaughter houses. He was given a good reference by
41 Sun Valley Poultry, which was referred to on day 115, page
42 45, line 1.
43
44 But on top of that it is particularly futile for
45 Mr. Rampton to try and criticise Mr. Bruton basically
46 because virtually the entirety of Mr. Bruton's evidence was
47 accepted by Dr. Pattison. So Mr. Bruton can hardly be said
48 to be lying as he has got a grudge against the company.
49 (Pause)
50
51 Mr. Bruton described on day 115, page 37 the process of
52 catching and removing the birds, and he said that before
53 the catching could start the modules had to be brought into
54 the sheds, and the way that this was done was that the
55 doors of the sheds would be opened and the catchers would
56 go in clapping their hands, shouting, whistling, shaking
57 about, whichever was the easiest way. He said that some
58 lads would kick them or throw them out of the way, and
59 then, as long as you had a gap in the sheds to bring the
60 modules in, you would start. You would start work loading
