Day 290 - 30 Oct 96 - Page 36
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2 MS. STEEL: Yes. He said that research from Germany and Sweden
3 had shown that teeth clipping could be associated with a
4 higher prevalence of infectious diseases in the gums and in
5 the joints of pigs, and that was just one example.
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7 MR JUSTICE BELL: Again, he was not prepared to resolve that one
8 way or the other from his own point of view, was he,
9 putting it against the welfare reasons for doing it?
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11 MS. STEEL: Right. I mean, he did say that a lot depended on a
12 number of things, including the gene types which affects
13 the genetic effects on behaviour -- yes, the genetic effect
14 of behaviour on the animal and also on environmental
15 circumstances, which does indicate that it is partly
16 dependent on the environment that the pigs are in. That
17 was day 18, page 32, line 25.
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19 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
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21 MS. STEEL: There is something else I wanted to -- (Pause) I do
22 not know if I have dealt with this, on the point I was
23 raising this morning about the piglets being weaned at 24
24 days. Dr. Gregory, when he was being cross-examined on day
25 20, page 56. We asked him about whether or not the piglets
26 would prefer to be with their mother, and he said, "It is
27 difficult to say but no doubt the piglets get satisfaction
28 from the milk they are deriving from the sow otherwise they
29 would not be drinking it, and they would continue drinking
30 it at up to eight weeks of age at least if they were given
31 the opportunity to. So you are depriving them of a source
32 of nutrition which they would otherwise enjoy." I asked,
33 "And of natural behaviour?" He said, "Suckling behaviour
34 is being curtailed in time, yes." Obviously, that being
35 one of the things that come under the five freedoms, the
36 freedom to express natural patterns of behaviour.
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38 Can I just say, in case this comes up later, the parts of
39 the farm that Dr. Gregory said that he had visited. This
40 is on day 20, page 57. I was asking Dr. Gregory about
41 whether or not he knew how the piglets, after they were
42 weaned at three weeks -- the ones that were indoors -- how
43 they were kept, and he said, no, he did not know. I said,
44 "Did you ask to see the indoor unit?" He said, "No." I
45 said, "Were you asked by the Plaintiffs to have a look at
46 the indoor unit?" He said, "No, I was asked to report on
47 what I was shown." So McDonald's did not say to
48 Dr. Gregory, 'Can you go and inspect the indoor unit and do
49 a report on it'.
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51 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. (Pause).
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53 MS. STEEL: Going on to slaughter, we heard from Dr. Gregory
54 and Mr. Bowes that the pigs were slaughtered at a rate of
55 220 to 240 an hour at the company's own slaughter house,
56 and that between 9,000 and 10,000 pigs were slaughtered
57 every week at the Bowes plant. I have not got a reference
58 for that, because it is in Dr. Gregory's statement, which
59 I was taking as having been read.
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