Day 111 - 30 Mar 95 - Page 60


     
     1        you are someone who worked there for a month and saw the
     2        animals or some of them anyway before they were
     3        slaughtered?
     4        A.  I saw all of them before they were slaughtered.  That
     5        is my statutory duty to examine every animal.
     6
     7   Q.   On that basis, as well as any other basis, you are being
     8        asked if you can help as to the age of the culled cows?
     9        A.  I do not think I could.  I would feel it would not be
    10        right professionally to judge the animal's age by just
    11        looking at them and performing an antemortem inspection.
    12        On certain few animals where I performed the very thorough
    13        antemortem examination on the basis of suspecting a disease
    14        or a condition, I could perhaps tell that you, but we are
    15        talking about one or two animals during a whole month,
    16        otherwise you cannot possibly make a good judgment of an
    17        animal's age.  You are guessing, doing guesswork.  You do
    18        not know the animal's background or feeding unless you look
    19        at its teeth.
    20
    21   MR. MORRIS:  Do Jarretts have any policy on the age of cattle
    22        they bought?  Do they generally buy young, old or have they
    23        just bought across the spectrum as far as you are
    24        concerned?
    25        A.  I have no idea whether they had any buying preferences
    26        in that sense.
    27
    28   MR. MORRIS:  I think we have basically finished.  We actually
    29        have the dismissal letter that was faxed by Eville & Jones,
    30        but I did not want to refer to it, partly because I have
    31        not copied it.  I have not read it in detail, really, also
    32        because I was hoping to get the rest of the documents that
    33        may throw light on the situation before I did so.  I do not
    34        know what Mr. Rampton's plans are; whether he wants to
    35        start today or not?
    36
    37   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I am going to leave it to Mr. Rampton whether
    38        he starts cross-examining now.  Mr. Rampton, whatever you
    39        are minded at the moment to say about the need to obtain
    40        instructions about cross-examination or the possible need
    41        to recall witnesses, I would like you to cross-examine
    42        absolutely as far as you can on the strength of present
    43        instructions because, although there have been advances,
    44        there were quite a lot of allegations in the original
    45        statement upon which, I assume, you have taken instructions
    46        if you wish to do so, quite apart from Mr. Bennett, whose
    47        visits of course were limited.
    48
    49   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I quite agree, with respect.
    50 
    51   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I have not, in fact, suggested that it be so, 
    52        but I do not see it as a case where you cannot start 
    53        cross-examination until you have taken further instructions
    54        if you want.
    55
    56   MR. RAMPTON:  I was anxious to do so.  There are one or two
    57        questions I would like to have answered so I can try to get
    58        instructions about them overnight.
    59
    60   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What I suggest is, I would like to stop about

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