Day 066 - 14 Dec 94 - Page 53


     
     1   Q.   No, I know.  Slaughterhouses that supply McDonald's?
     2        A.  Oh, yes.
     3
     4   Q.   Restaurants throughout the world or processors; do you know
     5        to what extent they employ their own veterinary officers?
     6        A.  Yes, most of them do, in fact -- I do not know many
     7        that does not have -- it may not necessarily be a vet, but
     8        it will be a Quality Assurance person; it could be a vet or
     9        a food technologist responsible for that.
    10
    11   Q.   Will they, generally speaking, have a responsibility for
    12        animal welfare?
    13        A.  Yes, they do.
    14
    15   Q.   I took you off the course of the line.  I wanted to go into
    16        the condemned room and ask you what its purpose is, what is
    17        it for?
    18        A.  The condemned room is an area where the meat that is
    19        not fit for human consumption is stored prior to its
    20        disposal.  It could be organs that have no use; it could be
    21        the heads; it could be animals that show signs of sickness
    22        or injury or parts of the animals.  That is the purpose of
    23        it.
    24
    25   Q.   Next door, the next door room seems to be called the
    26        "detained room"; what does that mean, "detained"?
    27        A.  It is for sometimes the vet or the inspector will
    28        obtain some products for they investigate if it is fit for
    29        human consumption or is not, or it could be used as an area
    30        where the animals or part of the condemned products can be
    31        stored.
    32
    33   Q.   Yes, I see.  We notice underneath the line there is another
    34        man -- he is red, I tell you from the original copy -- by
    35        the word "inspection".  What is he doing or should he be
    36        doing?
    37        A.  What, inspection -- I am sorry?
    38
    39   Q.   Opposite "vet", the man splitting saw and then below
    40        condemned room ---
    41        A.  Yes.
    42
    43   Q.   -- there is a man on the other side of the line with the
    44        word "inspection" beside him.  What does "inspection" mean
    45        in this context?
    46        A.  Oh, yes.  There is -- let me just add something back
    47        about the detained table first.  That is also it is used in
    48        the area where the product would not leave the table, that
    49        area, unless it is authorised by the local vet.
    50 
    51   Q.   Can I take it perhaps a stage further:  If the local vet is 
    52        a suspicious of a particular piece of meat or whatever, a 
    53        piece of carcass, he sends it to this room?
    54        A.  Yes, he will identify it with a tag that everybody
    55        knows in the plant knows that that product will not leave
    56        that area, that facility, without this written
    57        authorisation.
    58
    59   Q.   So it goes into a kind of quarantine?
    60        A.  Basically, that is what it is.

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