Day 069 - 19 Dec 94 - Page 68
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2 MR. MORRIS: When you visit feed lots and you say you are
3 concerned about animal welfare, if those animals do not
4 belong to you, you are saying you are concerned about that,
5 so you must feel some kind of -----
6 A. I did not say I am not concerned. I said there is
7 nothing I can do about it. I do not even know when they
8 are in a feed lot. We buy very small amounts of meat from
9 feed lots. If you want to go back to Australia, we do not
10 buy beef from feed lots, being a feed lot adds cost to the
11 meat that we do not need. That meat is basically the high
12 quality meat that there is no need for us. So, I have
13 absolutely no control over a feed lot -- very limited. All
14 that I can say is I can show some concerns that they might
15 or might not show some response to our concerns, especially
16 when it comes to feed lots.
17
18 Q. Make claims about being concerned about the welfare of
19 animals?
20 A. Yes, we are.
21
22 Q. Of animals that end up at McDonald's but you do not own
23 them?
24 A. That is correct.
25
26 Q. So why should you be concerned about what happens on farms
27 and feed lots?
28 A. We are concerned because some of those and the ones
29 that we know are going to end up with us, we have very
30 strong relationship with most of our suppliers. In the
31 case of Tyson, it is a facility that has been in operation
32 for over 12 years. It is a good facility that will produce
33 product for us. We have concern about how the animals are
34 treated because it is a facility that we call it dedicated
35 to us. In addition to that, they sell products to other
36 facilities. In those cases the majority of the product
37 goes to us. The supplier will not separate and make any
38 difference about the way they treat the animals or the way
39 they raise the animals.
40
41 So, we have some concerns and there are also some business
42 issues that we have to take into consideration if we are
43 going to be responsible at the end. When we sell a product
44 we are responsible, even if it is not our fault, we are at
45 fault. We have to do as much as possible, let us say, in
46 the case of a food-borne illness to prevent that. We have
47 a business relationship because we are concerned. We
48 learn, whatever we learn from Tyson, and it has been
49 transferred to other countries, I personally have taken
50 that, I have done that. I have sent people from Tyson to
51 other countries to help those people develop their
52 industries. That is a concern that I have not seen in any
53 other industry, in the food industry.
54
55 MR. MORRIS: That is especially in developing countries?
56 A. Could be developed, could be under-developed.
57
58 Q. I mean developing?
59 A. I have said Tyson ----
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