Day 289 - 29 Oct 96 - Page 22
1 MS. STEEL: If I could say some final points on transport, just
2 to draw your attention to the evidence of Louise Wallis
3 which was heard on 29th March, 1995, day 110 of the trial.
4 On page 2 of the transcript on that day she related how she
5 had been down to Sun Valley's processing plant in Hereford
6 in December 1988 with other people to carry out an
7 inspection of the conditions for the chickens being
8 transported into the plant, and shortly after she arrived a
9 lorry loaded with chickens arrived and stopped outside the
10 gate and then she, with others, went to inspect the
11 conditions. She said that what she saw was that the
12 chickens were packed very tightly into crates in a plastic
13 mesh which were piled on top of one another in tiers. The
14 chickens were packed very tightly in crates. She said
15 there were at least were ten in the crate. Obviously, not
16 being able to see it from all angles, only one side of it
17 being visible to the outside world, you would not be able
18 to tell exactly how many.
19
20 She went on to say, "Because the crates were piled on top
21 of each other in this way the chickens' droppings had
22 fallen down and the chickens on the bottom were covered in
23 droppings. The birds appeared to be in a pretty miserable
24 condition. A lot of the birds had feathers missing, they
25 had extensive bald patches on their bodies. Some of the
26 birds had scabs and sores, and they generally looked very
27 listless and apathetic. Some of them had their mouths
28 open, and were panting and in a state of great stress.
29 Some of them looked like they were on the verge of death".
30 She did say that she did have experience of free range
31 chickens, so she had an idea of how chickens behaved in a
32 normal environment. It was not something that was
33 completely new to her.
34
35 She referred to the fact that, because the birds were
36 packed so tightly in the crates, some of them were squashed
37 against the sides with wing tips sticking out and some of
38 the legs sticking out, and she remembered one bird whose
39 leg was very obviously broken because of the very strange
40 angle that it was protruding from the crate. She was not
41 able to see whether or not that bird was alive or dead
42 because it was several tiers up the lorry.
43
44 So, I think that evidence is helpful in determining the
45 suffering of the birds as they are transported to the
46 slaughter plant and, as we have heard, that can be up to 70
47 miles and on average 25 to 30 miles. So it is not just
48 like a short drive up the road. It is also helpful
49 evidence in terms of the bald patches and scabs, and so on,
50 the state of the chickens generally in 1988 in terms of
51 their general health, because obviously that is the only -
52 well, no, we have heard the evidence of Mr. Bruton as
53 well. In terms of, sort of inspections, all the evidence
54 that we had is far more recent and after the date of the
55 alleged libel.
56
57 So, bearing in mind that Dr. Pattison has said that there
58 have been quite a lot of improvements over the course of
59 time, I think that the conditions the birds were in on that
60 lorry is indicative of the general standard throughout
