Day 018 - 26 Jul 94 - Page 44
1 Q. Have you conveyed your suggestions for improvement to GD
Bowes?
2 A. Not directly.
3 Q. Not directly. One further question before I go on to
cattle, paragraph 5 on page 10 you observed that a couple
4 of pigs out of 13, two pigs, fell off the bleeding rail
into the trough alongside; the reason for that was
5 probably excessive kicking after stunning; plainly that
may create a danger for human beings. Does it create any
6 problems from the animal welfare point of view? Might the
pig wake up?
7 A. The only situation where it could be a problem from
the welfare point of view is if it falls off the shackle
8 before it has been stuck. In that situation one has
either got to restun the pig to make sure it does not come
9 round, or you have to bleed it in the prone position in
the bleeding channel.
10
Q. In this case they shot the recumbent pig with a captive
11 bolt gun.
A. That is correct.
12
Q. In your view, would that be, as long as it is done
13 quickly, effective to ensure that the pig did not regain
consciousness?
14 A. So long as it is done quickly enough, yes,
15 Q. Was it done quickly in these two cases?
A. I did not see either of these pigs resume breathing
16 before the shock was applied.
17 Q. Can we move now please to cattle? In your report, start
at page 10 (vi).
18
MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just so I understand, Mr. Rampton, I would
19 like to know just what is involved in the sticking.
20 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, yes. I should have asked about that
aspect. Tell us, Dr. Gregory?
21 A. For pigs?
22 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. Mr. Rampton may ask you later.
A. Pigs suspended by one hind leg in the chain, the
23 slaughter man is standing at a point just before the
bleeding channel; he grabs hold of foreleg; he has a knife
24 in his hand; he makes an incision in the skin of the neck
going the chest, and then thrusts the knife into the chest
25 cavity of the animal to sever the major vessels in the
thorax, in the chest.
26
MR. RAMPTON: I should have asked you this before,
27 Dr. Gregory. Are there some cultures in which that
sticking by one means or another is done without the
28 animals having been prestunned?
A. Not in pigs.
29
Q. Not in pigs, that is absolutely right. But in chickens
30 and cows?
A. Correct.
