Day 069 - 19 Dec 94 - Page 60
1 they just do not do it. They do not feel like it is needed
2 and most of them they do not use hormones.
3
4 Q. Yes, but when since when? They were using them a few years
5 ago, were they not?
6 A. As far as I know, they might have been a few people
7 that have used it, but I do not know of any supplier who
8 had used hormones in Australia since as far as I can
9 remember.
10
11 Q. When was the first time you went to Australia?
12 A. Two and a half or two years ago.
13
14 Q. So you would not know about what the situation was before
15 then?
16 A. That is correct. I was told, though, I might add, that
17 during my conversations with the trade associations, with
18 the feed lots, with the slaughterhouses, with the cattle
19 men, they do not believe in the use of hormones in the
20 sense that they think they can get -- one of the things
21 that they can advertise their product is to the use of
22 hormones-free advertisement. It has nothing to do whether
23 or not it provides any value to them. Their value is to
24 their advertising.
25
26 Q. So that was their main concern about why they did not use
27 hormonal growth?
28 A. They do not use it because they can do a better job of
29 selling their product, and they depend heavily on export
30 markets and a lot of them go to the EC, go to all over the
31 world, Asia. It is difficult for them when the European
32 Community requested hormone free, to select cattles that
33 are grown with hormones or with not. So, the best way for
34 them is to not use hormones so they can sell the same
35 product all over the world and then make a claim that it is
36 hormone-free.
37
38 Q. Right. So prior to the EC bringing in the regulations on
39 hormonal growth promoters, they would not have needed to
40 worry about it?
41 A. Yes, you can make that assumption. The other
42 assumption you can make that they did not know how to use
43 them before that.
44
45 Q. Is it right that laminitis is something of a problem with
46 feed lots?
47 A. Sorry?
48
49 Q. Laminitis?
50 A. I do not know what that is.
51
52 Q. It is a hoof problem, foot problem?
53 A. Does it exist in cattle? Yes, it exists in cattle,
54 yes.
55
56 Q. You have not heard of laminitis?
57 A. I do not know what you meant. I could not understand
58 what you meant. I did not know what you are referring to.
59 There are a number of diseases that are related to the hoof
60 of the animals that have different terms around the world.
