Day 066 - 14 Dec 94 - Page 35
1 the form of raw materials, muscle.
2
3 Q. It must be Australia then.
4
5 MR. RAMPTON: This must be a misdescription of the Australian
6 facility, my Lord. That is quite right.
7 A. And I must add, one of our finest facilities in the 70
8 countries we work out or operate on is located in
9 Australia.
10
11 Q. Is Australia?
12 A. Yes.
13
14 Q. If you turn over the next page, again it is a Malaysian
15 document, here it says that the present supplier is Mac
16 Food Malaysia, but the source of the raw material is
17 China. Do you see that?
18 A. Yes.
19
20 Q. I think it says "China" but, in fact, some of it is
21 exported to Singapore?
22 A. That is correct.
23
24 Q. Can I ask you whether you know, is it likely that the
25 cattle are transported live from China to Malaysia?
26 A. No, no. We do not transport any live cattle around the
27 world. It is only beef in the form of raw materials, of
28 muscle.
29
30 Q. Here you see mostly "yes" answers; "no" to the question
31 about the prod. Then against "stunning practice" you see
32 "spinal cord severed with knife behind atlas bone" and
33 beneath that "yes" to the question about "religious
34 slaughter", "Halal". What is the method of slaughtering
35 which involves the insertion of a knife and the severing of
36 the spinal cord behind the atlas bone?
37 A. It is a religious practice where they stick a knife and
38 cut the spinal cord.
39
40 Q. Are you able to tell us, Dr. Gonzales, from your own
41 knowledge of the business, to what extent the countries of
42 the Far East, Thailand -- I am trying to do it in order but
43 I will probably get it wrong -- Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan,
44 Hong Kong and so on, grow their own cattle for use
45 domestically?
46 A. Most of them are not self-sufficient. In the countries
47 that we operate, most of the meat, the beef, comes from
48 other sources. It could be the United States or it could
49 be Australia, those countries or New Zealand, those are the
50 major sources of beef for our suppliers.
51
52 Q. Yes. I notice that in the Malaysian section -- this may
53 just be an error of filing but I think not -- there is a
54 statement about the slaughtering practices in Uruguay?
55 A. Yes.
56
57 Q. Which states that the product is exported to Malaysia?
58 A. That is correct.
59
60 Q. So they might get some beef from South America as well?
