Day 101 - 10 Mar 95 - Page 67
1 A. Yes.
2
3 Q. Do or do not battery chickens have freedom from hunger and
4 thirst?
5 A. Yes, they do.
6
7 Q. Do they have freedom from discomfort?
8 A. Yes, they do.
9
10 Q. Do they have freedom from pain, injury or disease?
11 A. Yes, they do.
12
13 Q. How does their freedom from pain, injury or disease compare
14 with those of what might be called free range chickens?
15 A. Well, the rates of disease are much higher in free
16 range chickens and there is obviously a greater danger of
17 injury from foxes, and the such like, that could get into
18 the compound. So, the rates of free range for those are
19 high, I would say.
20
21 Q. Apart from the possibility of dust-baths, which we have not
22 yet had established in this court, never mind had any
23 evidence from the Defendants about, what normal patterns of
24 behaviour do you think (if any) battery chickens are
25 deprived of?
26 A. I cannot think of any. I cannot really think of any.
27
28 Q. They cannot fly, can they?
29 A. No, they cannot.
30
31 Q. Do you think that flying is normal to the breed or strain
32 of chickens that become layers in battery cages?
33 A. No, I do not.
34
35 Q. Do battery chickens' layers have freedom from fear?
36 A. Battery chickens -- yes, total freedom from fear.
37
38 Q. How, in your opinion -- and I am interested in your opinion
39 as a McDonald's person -- how, in your opinion, does that
40 freedom for the battery chicken compare with the condition
41 of a free range chicken? Let us take an idealised picture
42 of a chicken in an old fashioned, we might call it, old
43 McDonald's farmyard?
44 A. Well, obviously, there are factors of fear there from
45 outside elements that would not be present in a battery
46 shed. You obviously have predators. There is also some
47 fighting between the birds which does not happen in battery
48 houses.
49
50 Q. It does not?
51 A. No, I have never seen it.
52
53 Q. Thank you. May we now turn to something a little bit more
54 precise, perhaps. I hope we can do this without turning it
55 up, but we may have to. Do you remember in those charts,
56 those summary sheets from Orleon that we looked at earlier
57 in volume 8, there was a list of suppliers, the first of
58 which in the column was Grandstand Road?
59 A. Yes, I remember.
60
