Day 096 - 03 Mar 95 - Page 23
1 MS. STEEL: So, if anything, things are better over here than
2 they are in America?
3 A. I said that ours are the highest in the world.
4
5 Q. Have you seen things like dry sow stalls and farrowing
6 crates that were shown on the video when you visited farms
7 in America?
8 A. Yes.
9
10 Q. They would be typical of the American situation as well?
11 A. I do not know. What I saw was extremely impressed with
12 -- the most professional outfit I have ever seen in my
13 life.
14
15 Q. Why was that?
16 A. The whole thing had been planned extremely well and for
17 -- I will try to explain to you. That was a complete unit
18 of what they call a "pod", and a pod consists of a meat
19 plant with the pigs all around it -- when I say "all around
20 it", I mean many square miles of area -- where they are
21 taken individual farms and they have -- they would use
22 stalls but they looked extremely well and it was a totally
23 enclosed system, so that there was, I think, possibly the
24 least disease and problems are seen with pig units possibly
25 anywhere, apart from our own.
26
27 Q. So they were not better than your system?
28 A. Well, there are two different concepts. There is the
29 American system and we are, if you like, small countrymen
30 compared to the big ranchmen, if you like, in America. It
31 is a different concept there.
32
33 Q. The place you visited was a major supplier of pork, was it?
34 A. It was. We were asked to go over there and give advice
35 on welfare conditions to this company. My brother and
36 I were specifically taken over there for that purpose. We
37 were there before that actually processed one pig.
38
39 Q. So this was something that was new, it was being set up?
40 A. Yes.
41
42 Q. They still had the stalls?
43 A. Yes.
44
45 Q. The sow stalls?
46 A. Yes.
47
48 Q. Were they the same size?
49 A. They looked very comfortable. You know, we did not get
50 out the rulers and measure them exactly, but they looked
51 very comfortable.
52
53 Q. Would they have room for the sows to turn around?
54 A. Possibly, you know -- do not hold me to that. As
55 I said, I was just there walking through and they looked
56 comfortable.
57
58 MR. JUSTICE BELL: One of the stalls there, at least -- I think
59 it was one where one was looking down on the back of the
60 sow a bit from behind -- you could not judge to what
