Day 291 - 31 Oct 96 - Page 36
1 production end of the business." So in fact she is not
2 really concerned with animal welfare at all.
3
4 As far as beef and pigs are concerned on page 44, near the
5 top of the page, "I would say she probably visits
6 slaughtering of beef and pork no more than two or three
7 times a year." Question, "Does she ever visit the farms?"
8 Answer, "No, no, not for beef or pork." So McDonald's
9 effectively do not have any monitoring system of their own,
10 and they do not effectively have any welfare policy of
11 their own, because it is only the law of the land anyway,
12 and they do not employ anybody who is responsible for
13 welfare specifically, despite having over 40,000 employees
14 in this country. If there is anything else of relevance on
15 this, I will see if I can find it. (Pause)
16
17 On the top of page 45, while I am on this, it also came up
18 in this section, said that McKane's and Howard Long
19 International were the main two in the agro-chemical area,
20 this is the use of chemicals for growing potatoes and
21 salads for McDonald's use. Top of page 45, that was.
22
23 Then on page 48, Mr. Oakley was asked, at the bottom of the
24 page, line 56, "Would you describe a battery cage as, as
25 comfortable?" Answer, "I think it is pretty comfortable."
26 And then when he was asked on the next page, at the top of
27 page 49, line 15, "The chickens in the broiler unit, do you
28 think they are comfortable too? " Answer, "They seem to
29 be, when I have been there." Then it seems to me that here
30 we have the two representatives of the company completely
31 indifferent to the welfare of animals that end up in their
32 product, unable to notice any kind of level of suffering,
33 inhumanity, cruelty or even uncomfortableness. I would say
34 it was callous indifference by McDonald's.
35
36 Then he says top of page 50, line 18, "Have you ever given
37 Sun Valley a warning?" Answer, "No." So all the things
38 that we have heard of, where they rely on their suppliers,
39 and none of the defects and cruelty involved in the
40 Sun Valley operation have resulted in a single warning as
41 far as their purchasing officer, chief of purchasing,
42 Mr. Oakley, knows. Then he was asked, "Just what checks
43 are you making to ensure that this animal welfare policy is
44 complied with?", whatever policy they claimed. "We do not
45 actually make the checks, the checks are made by the
46 government health inspectors and veterinary officers", et
47 cetera. Then there was a discussion about that. That was
48 page 50.
49
50 At page 51, it was put to him that he had said he would not
51 purchase from a company if they did not conform to the
52 codes of practice, he answered, "Consistently." Obviously,
53 backtracking by this stage. Then he tried to defend the
54 practices at Sun Valley as not really being consistent
55 breaches, even though they are continuous, and many
56 different points which have all come up in evidence.
57
58 So, McDonald's would not notice consistent breaches of
59 Codes of Practices, it appears, even if all the evidence
60 was put in front of them, which is not surprising because
