Day 288 - 28 Oct 96 - Page 13
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2 MR. RAMPTON: No, that is right, my Lord.
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4 MR. JUSTICE BELL: All the rest -----
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6 MS. STEEL: It is part of the context as well, anyway.
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8 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It may be. McDonald's do not complain of
9 those words.
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11 MS. STEEL: I actually thought it was set out in the Statement
12 of Claim.
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14 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think you will find it is not. It may not
15 matter one way or the other.
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17 MS. STEEL: Yes, sorry, if I say, it is putting forward the
18 alternatives to the way things are run now, i.e. that we do
19 not have to eat meat.
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21 MR. RAMPTON: Your Lordship is right. It is not part of it.
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23 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No. (Pause) I am not surprised it is not
24 complained of. It is not defamatory; even if it was it
25 would be palpably fair comment.
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27 MS. STEEL: Right. If I say that Dr. Gregory in his statement
28 on page 3 actually gives updated figures, which is that 730
29 million animals are killed for food in Britain every year.
30 That was dated 1993, I think.
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32 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
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34 MS. STEEL: Right. Those are basically the facts that are set
35 out in the leaflet, and we say that they have been proved
36 by the evidence given in court, and the sting of those
37 leaflets - sorry, the sting of the words in this section of
38 the leaflet is that animals are suffering and that
39 McDonald's are responsible for it. That is the defamatory
40 meaning, obviously relating to the animals reared for
41 McDonald's products.
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43 If I just make a point about the sting, which is that on
44 day 78, page 63, Mr. Walker from Mckey Food Services
45 admitted at line 53 that as a result of the meat industry
46 the suffering of animals was inevitable. Obviously,
47 Mr. Walker is overall responsible for the production of
48 McDonald's burgers, of all the beef and pork products.
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50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
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52 MS. STEEL: So we would say that by the admission of the
53 Plaintiffs' own supplier of pork and beef-----
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55 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Quite frankly, I would not-----
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57 MS. STEEL: The sting of the leaflet has been proved.
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59 MR JUSTICE BELL: I do not think that can be an admission for
60 McDonald's. But it probably does not matter, you say that
