Day 290 - 30 Oct 96 - Page 31
1 In addition to that, they had the dunging area, but that
2 was basically, although air could get through it, a fully
3 enclosed dunging area with slats and the walls were to a
4 height where it would mean that the pigs could not see out
5 anyway, and there was a roof on it. So, effectively, they
6 had no access to the open air or to sunshine.
7
8 Can I just say, going back to the sows, there was a
9 description about the conditions of the sows. I think Mr.
10 Bowes was saying something about the company being 95
11 percent approved for the freedom food system, and the
12 reason why they were not a hundred percent approved -- it
13 seemed a bit strange, but anyway he said, when he was
14 describing the reasons for that, it was because at the back
15 of each sow there is a little slatted metal area and under
16 freedom food rules that is classified as slats, so they
17 were not approved for that reason. That was on day 88,
18 page 38.
19
20 On page 39 it went on to the reason why the RSPCA
21 disapproved of the slats was because the pigs could get
22 their feet caught.
23
24 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What is the problem at the moment? Because
25 you were going along quite nicely, if I might say so, this
26 morning, getting through things, but this afternoon has
27 been rather different.
28
29 MS. STEEL: My notes are getting more and more chaotic, because
30 I am getting through the bits that I have sorted out more.
31
32 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If you have got a topic, you do not
33 necessarily have to go to the transcript actually to read
34 out the bit. If you can give me the reference in the
35 transcripts of Mr. Bowes' evidence and say what the subject
36 is, then I can look it up myself.
37
38 Do you want a few minutes now so that you can sit down and
39 get yourself organised and mark up your notes? I can see
40 that you have got pages and pages of word processed
41 material.
42
43 MS. STEEL: Some of it is scrawled as well, which is the really
44 hard part to read. Well, I can go on to another point,
45 which is the point that you questioned the other day about
46 the fact that McDonald's basically only get meat from the
47 indoor channels because they were not prepared to pay the
48 higher price and have the pork that is reared under the
49 freedom food label. Mr. Bowes related that there were two
50 separate buying channels for pigs. That was on day 88,
51 page 59, line 13.
52
53 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
54
55 MS. STEEL: He said that the cost of production of outdoor pigs
56 is 15 to 20 percent more. That was on day 88, page 59,
57 line 18. He said that the pigs that were reared under the
58 outdoor system for the freedom foods pork -- sorry, the
59 pork goes to supermarkets, the freedom foods pork goes to
60 supermarkets and various manufacturers, it is not mixed in
