Day 291 - 31 Oct 96 - Page 17
1
2 On page 45, still on day 20, Dr. Gregory was asked, "Does a
3 calf when it is prodded with a goad sometimes cry out?" He
4 said, "I have known bellowing to occur when goads are
5 applied in an abattoir situation, yes." Question, "So if
6 another cow hears another cow bellowing out would that
7 cause the first cow distress?" He said, "In all likelihood
8 the cow hearing it would interpret that as an alarm call,
9 yes. Cows were sensitive to noise in general, clashing and
10 banging and, depending on the noise, it could cause them
11 distress." He said something about the frequency, or the
12 wavelength.
13
14 On page 46, referring to plant A, which I think was the
15 Midland Meat plant, I can't remember now, (Pause).
16
17 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What is the point anyway?
18
19 MS. STEEL: Just that he said he had referred to the goads
20 being used as the cattle came through the holding pens and
21 Mr. Morris asked him whether or not the other cows would be
22 aware of the cow in front of them, and he basically said,
23 yes, and that if the goad was used and the cow cried out
24 the other cows would be aware of that. So, that is going
25 to add to the stress and distress that the cows suffer.
26
27 He said on page 47 that typically a goad would be used in
28 order to get an animal under the guillotine gate when the
29 stunning pen is vacant and they want to fill it.
30 Basically, it was being used up to the point they were
31 going in the stunning pen, and that there could be other
32 cows around. He said that it was not unusual for cattle to
33 be reluctant to go into the stunning pens. That is page
34 47, line 25. He said at line 29, "I would say with all
35 cattle once a gate is lifted you have to prompt the animal
36 to go on, it does not jump in there." He said, "You can
37 just walk behind the animal and that might be sufficient,
38 but if it refuses to go even under those circumstances then
39 typically a prod would be used."
40
41 On page 48, he said that when the cow was stunned there
42 would be a loud noise associated with the discharge of the
43 cartridge and that the other cows outside the stunning pen
44 would be able to hear that loud noise and that could put
45 them off wanting to go into the stunning pen themselves.
46 He said there were lots of other noises within the
47 abattoir, quite a lot of equipment made of metal so there
48 was metal to metal contact noise, and that was the bit
49 where there was often a radio on. "The pneumatics in an
50 abattoir are often prone to making a lot of noise, for
51 instance on elevating platforms."
52
53 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I have all that, you need not go through it.
54
55 MS. STEEL: OK, just generally that there was a lot of noise in
56 the slaughter house. He said at page 49, line 9, that he
57 agreed that it would not be surprising if cows became
58 stressed because of the noise. He was asked whether or not
59 he had seen cows become very agitated before going into the
60 stunning pen and he said, "Yes, I think the most common
