Day 092 - 27 Feb 95 - Page 54


     
     1
     2   Q.   -- quite a severe problem?
     3        A.  It is not a severe problem when you consider the
     4        percentages.
     5
     6   Q.   On your figures it would be around about 250 birds a shed?
     7        A.  Well, two per cent of that, yes.
     8
     9   Q.   No, not two per cent of that.  500 birds would die in a
    10        shed, on your figures?
    11        A.  No, no, you have got the wrong calculations.
    12
    13   Q.   There is 25,000 in a shed?
    14
    15   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It would be 4 or 500 depending on whether it
    16        was 20,000 or 25,000?
    17        A.  OK, I thought it was 40, around 40.
    18
    19   Q.   If you can anthropomorphise to this extent, if we get to,
    20        say, six or seven weeks of age, what proportion of a
    21        broiler's natural lifetime would be that?  I know it is
    22        difficult to say because, for better or worse, they do not
    23        survive until the end of their natural life.  But,
    24        presumably, research has been done and studies which gives
    25        you an idea of what a broiler would normally live to.
    26        Because, if I know that, I can, just as an exercise,
    27        compare it with human mortality figures up to the age of
    28        five, for instance, if I can relate it one to another.
    29        A.  I cannot -- when we talk with percentages, especially
    30        when you compare it to a bird in a natural environment --
    31        by that I mean outside -- the percentages will be probably
    32        slower because the animals will die of a lot of other
    33        reasons, so that the percentage, when we compare the same
    34        problems side by side, the problems in a house, in a
    35        broiler house, will look to be higher.  But, if you compare
    36        the mortality rate which is what we are really looking for
    37        will be a lot smaller in a growing house than what it is
    38        outside in the environment.  I am not considering predators
    39        and other sources of death, just specifically from
    40        diseases.
    41
    42   MS. STEEL:   The natural life-span is about five to 10 years for
    43        a chicken, is it not?
    44        A.  Yes, it could be.
    45
    46   MR. MORRIS:  So, is the mortality rate in a broiler shed a
    47        significant indicator?  I mean, if the mortality rate was
    48        high in a broiler shed, would that to you be something that
    49        would be cruel?  For the welfare of the bird, is the aim to
    50        keep the mortality rate down as low as possible? 
    51        A.  It is ----- 
    52 
    53   Q.   Set aside the economic reasons and all that kind of stuff?
    54        A.  Besides the economic, it is difficult to say what you
    55        mean by "cruel".  My definition of cruelty, if we do it
    56        with negligence, if there is negligence, there is something
    57        better we can do, that would be cruel.  There are animals
    58        that are going to get sick because that is Mother Nature
    59        plays that role.  Have we been cruel with them -- no,
    60        absolutely not.

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