Day 290 - 30 Oct 96 - Page 34
1 going productively until 4 o'clock or just after. Longer
2 than five minutes, obviously, but how much longer?
3
4 MS. STEEL: Well, a break. (Pause) I do not know. I mean,
5 the problem is that I -- well, like I said, I start off
6 with kind of notes that are in a sensible order and fairly
7 comprehensive and then, the later on in the day it gets,
8 the more I am relying on notes which are very scrappy and
9 all over the place. It makes it hard to carry on. I am
10 not sure how much improvement I can make on that in terms
11 of having a break now.
12
13 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think we should try and keep going. What
14 I will do, I will rise until 25 past 3. Use that quarter
15 of an hour or 20 minutes to see what order you can generate
16 into your notes.
17
18 MS. STEEL: Right. Okay.
19
20 (Short Adjournment)
21
22 MS. STEEL: I will try and be a bit more organised. Just some
23 final points about the stocking density thing. That whilst
24 the -- well, the minimum stated in the Codes of Practice is
25 0.45, between 0.45 and 0.5 square metres of pigs
26 between.... Sorry, I will start again. The minimum stated
27 in the Codes of Practice is 0.45 square metres for pigs of
28 80 kilograms and 0.5 square metres for pigs of hundred
29 kilograms. So although obviously Bowes came within the
30 Codes of Practice, unlike Sun Valley Poultry, we still say
31 they are only just above the minimum and that pigs should
32 have a right to have a decent amount of space to roam
33 around in and not have their freedom of movement restricted
34 such a degree.
35
36 A couple of other points on the rearing side of things.
37 There was reference to some welfare problems such as tail
38 biting and that if there was tail biting there was a
39 likelihood that there could be abscesses in the backbone
40 and tail biting could cause dreadful discomfort to pigs.
41 That was day 88, page 13, line 51. I think there was
42 evidence to the effect that that was something that was
43 made worse by the methods used.
44
45 In terms of tail docking, Mr. Bowes was asked about what
46 methods could be employed to reduce or minimise tail
47 biting, and one of the things was to use strains of pigs
48 which do it less than others. The other was tail docking
49 and Mr. Bowes said that tail docking was carried out on
50 some pigs that were reared for Bowes. He said that it was
51 left to the discretion of the individual unit manager.
52 That was on day 88, page 31, line 9.
53
54 And Dr. Gregory gave evidence about tail docking. He
55 stated on day 18, page 32, line 2, that tail docking in
56 other species is reputed to be a painful procedure for two
57 reasons; not only the surgical operation in itself, but
58 also it can result in a proportion of the animals having a
59 lasting pain. He said that he did not see evidence of it
60 in the pigs he had seen at Bowes, but it would be a
