Day 020 - 28 Jul 94 - Page 44
1 transferred to the abattoir. In some situations, if they
are not, if a satisfactory price is not reached or arrived
2 at, then they might go on to a second auction ring or they
might go on to somewhere else. It is not necessarily a
3 single stop in one auction ring for the dairy cattle trade
-- they do get shifted around quite a lot -- and that
4 time can compound the stress of the period, the overall
period.
5
Q. I do not know if it is -----
6 A. The reason it is stressful, partly, is because it is
in an unusual environment. It is a new environment to the
7 cow, and it will be fearful of certain stimulae.
8 Q. Do cows often slip when they are being transported?
I suggest the phrase could be a "downer cow", a farmer's
9 term for when a cow slips?
A. A "downer cow" would be a cow that is unable to move,
10 you know, it is down and there is trouble in actually
getting the animal to move voluntarily.
11
Q. Does that happen frequently?
12 A. I do not have any exact figures on the prevalence, I
do not know. In my experience of having seen cow
13 abattoirs, I have not even seen a lot of downer cows about
-- in fact, I am trying to think as to whether I have
14 seen any.
15 Q. But in transportation and markets?
A. It does happen, you get downer cows, yes, they do
16 exist, absolutely. I am not sure whether you would be
able to find the prevalence figure of downer cows. I am
17 not sure that figure is available.
18 Q. Just one more thing about transportation: In the
slaughterhouse and from the transport to the
19 slaughterhouse, both the companies, both the plants, which
you did a survey on were using electric goads?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. Would the goads be used during transportation as well, is
that general?
22 A. Is that general? I think it is fair to say that some
hauliers do and some do not. Certainly in days gone by it
23 was not general. I would not like to say what the
prevalence is now, but I believe that some hauliers are
24 using goads, I believe so.
25 Q. Are they more likely to be used for animals that are not
domesticated, such as dairy cows, for example, in the
26 Scottish end of the operation?
A. I think they would be used when, as a generalisation
27 again, they would be used where you have an animal that is
refusing to move voluntarily in the right direction that
28 the stock person wants it to go. So, for instance, if you
have an animal in a lorry and it is not coming out of the
29 lorry when you want to unload it, a man might apply a goad
through the side wall of the lorry to get it to move.
30 That is the sort of situation it could be used in.
