Day 018 - 26 Jul 94 - Page 81
1 they should do a ventral neck cut and cut the carotins.
Since in very recent months they have changed to a ventral
2 neck cutter.
3 Q. That is chickens?
A. That is broiler chickens, correct.
4
MS. STEEL: Can I ask a couple of things on times?
5
MR. JUSTICE BELL: Can you pause for a moment. Thank you.
6 A. Can I interrupt and answer another one that has
cropped up in my mind which answers Mr. Morris' question?
7 Not long ago, within the past year, yes, maybe about a
year ago in fact, they reduced their line speed and they
8 divided their line into two killing lines. Previously
they were killing birds of up to about 220 birds a minute,
9 usually running at about 180 to 190 birds a minute. They
have now separated it into two lines where males are put
10 on one line and females are put on another line. They
have changed the size of the shackle.
11
MR. JUSTICE BELL: This is the birds themselves, is it?
12 A. Correct. They have changed the size of the shackle
according to the sex of the bird. Now males have thicker
13 shanks and they have a wider gap to put the bird in the
shackle in which to slit the legs of the bird. This
14 actually has a welfare advantage because it means there is
likely to be less compression of the bone and pain
15 associated with hanging on.
16 MS. STEEL: I am just going back slightly, two questions
although I will give you them one at a time. Do you know
17 roughly when they changed, Sun Valley changed from having
a 13-bird water bath to the 8-bird?
18 A. No, I do not know. I would be guessing.
19 Q. OK. What about roughly when they changed from 25
milliamps to 60 milliamps?
20 A. No.
21 Q. Was it more than five years ago?
A. It would probably would have been at the same time;
22 probable would have been at the same time as the change in
the water bath itself.
23
MR. MORRIS: In the 80s?
24 A. Highly like I think, yes. I suggest you ask
Dr. Pattison.
25
MR. JUSTICE BELL: You have concentrated on Sun Valley in those
26 answers. Do you know anything about pig farming if you
went back -----
27 A. I have never been -----
28 Q. --- say something like five years? You have only made one
visit to those?
29 A. Yes. I have not been to their pig unit on any
previous occasion to that. I had been to plant B, the
30 beef abattoir plant B, I had been to that abattoir to look
at their sheep line back in the early 1980s; it might have
