Day 066 - 14 Dec 94 - Page 53
1 Q. No, I know. Slaughterhouses that supply McDonald's?
2 A. Oh, yes.
3
4 Q. Restaurants throughout the world or processors; do you know
5 to what extent they employ their own veterinary officers?
6 A. Yes, most of them do, in fact -- I do not know many
7 that does not have -- it may not necessarily be a vet, but
8 it will be a Quality Assurance person; it could be a vet or
9 a food technologist responsible for that.
10
11 Q. Will they, generally speaking, have a responsibility for
12 animal welfare?
13 A. Yes, they do.
14
15 Q. I took you off the course of the line. I wanted to go into
16 the condemned room and ask you what its purpose is, what is
17 it for?
18 A. The condemned room is an area where the meat that is
19 not fit for human consumption is stored prior to its
20 disposal. It could be organs that have no use; it could be
21 the heads; it could be animals that show signs of sickness
22 or injury or parts of the animals. That is the purpose of
23 it.
24
25 Q. Next door, the next door room seems to be called the
26 "detained room"; what does that mean, "detained"?
27 A. It is for sometimes the vet or the inspector will
28 obtain some products for they investigate if it is fit for
29 human consumption or is not, or it could be used as an area
30 where the animals or part of the condemned products can be
31 stored.
32
33 Q. Yes, I see. We notice underneath the line there is another
34 man -- he is red, I tell you from the original copy -- by
35 the word "inspection". What is he doing or should he be
36 doing?
37 A. What, inspection -- I am sorry?
38
39 Q. Opposite "vet", the man splitting saw and then below
40 condemned room ---
41 A. Yes.
42
43 Q. -- there is a man on the other side of the line with the
44 word "inspection" beside him. What does "inspection" mean
45 in this context?
46 A. Oh, yes. There is -- let me just add something back
47 about the detained table first. That is also it is used in
48 the area where the product would not leave the table, that
49 area, unless it is authorised by the local vet.
50
51 Q. Can I take it perhaps a stage further: If the local vet is
52 a suspicious of a particular piece of meat or whatever, a
53 piece of carcass, he sends it to this room?
54 A. Yes, he will identify it with a tag that everybody
55 knows in the plant knows that that product will not leave
56 that area, that facility, without this written
57 authorisation.
58
59 Q. So it goes into a kind of quarantine?
60 A. Basically, that is what it is.
