Day 094 - 01 Mar 95 - Page 39
1 springboard for her questions may be that article, but when
2 you put the questions to the witness just put them
3 according to the procedure we have followed before.
4
5 By all means, refer us to a page so that we can stay with
6 you, but then say: "Do you accept that?" and put your
7 proposition of fact without reading from the document as
8 such. Do not you concern yourself with the procedure. If
9 you have time just to have a glance through it between now
10 and 2 o'clock, so be it.
11
12 (Luncheon Adjournment)
13
14 MS. STEEL: Did you read the article over the lunch break?
15 A. I did, I glanced through it.
16
17 Q. On page 35 ---
18 A. Yes.
19
20 Q. -- it mentions about Montfort's Grand Island
21 slaughterhouse. The paragraph just below that, I am
22 looking under "lining for slaughter"?
23 A. Yes.
24
25 Q. The paragraph just below that describes the way that the
26 operation starts, the one that says "starting before dawn"?
27 A. Yes.
28
29 Q. Is that an accurate description of what would happen at the
30 plant?
31 A. How many lines, are just the first paragraph?
32
33 Q. Yes.
34 A. Yes, that is where it starts.
35
36 Q. So electric prods would be standard?
37 A. I do not know if they are standard. Are they used --
38 yes.
39
40 Q. "Following having their throats cut, the hides are stripped
41 with a rotary blade". Can you just explain how that works?
42 A. There is a mechanical -- there is not only that, there
43 are several steps that take place before that, where the
44 animal -- where the part of the skinning removal of the
45 hide takes place by hand, at the last part is the piece of
46 equipment is more of a roll than a blade. I do not know
47 what may mean by "a blade". It is a roll. So, if you can
48 imagine this band as being the roll, it has a chain and
49 that chain goes and, basically, it ties a knot at the
50 different corners of the hide, of both left hand-side, and
51 as it rolls it pulls the hide downwards.
52
53 Q. Then "following that their heads would be cut off". Would
54 you accept that often hair remains on the skinned head and
55 horns?
56 A. Could happen, yes.
57
58 Q. Would you accept that that could lead to contamination?
59 A. Yes, it could.
60
