Day 066 - 14 Dec 94 - Page 59
1
2 Q. Did you read his account of his visit to the establishment
3 of Bowes & Sons in Norfolk?
4 A. Yes, I did.
5
6 Q. Was there anything about that which was contradictory of
7 your own experience throughout the world, can you remember?
8 A. No, contradictory, no.
9
10 Q. You described that plan of an English beef slaughtering
11 line, or beef treatment line, processing line, as fairly
12 typical. How did it seem that Dr. Gregory's account of
13 what he saw in Norfolk fit in with your general experience?
14 A. It is fairly typical, and if you look also at the
15 figures that he got, the results that he had from the tests
16 and evaluations that he had, is fairly typical from the
17 ones we have seen for suppliers that supply McDonald's.
18
19 Q. Yes, I was going to ask you that, whether you were
20 concerned to any extent that there was an unduly high
21 proportion of pigs, a significant proportion of pigs, that
22 were imperfectly stunned by the method that is used of
23 electrical stunning, I mean, in your travels and in what
24 you have learnt about the slaughtering operation?
25 A. Normally, what I have seen is a stunning that they use
26 where they use a lower voltage, and that would be something
27 that is -- that you would find normally outside of the US,
28 I mean, outside of the UK.
29
30 Q. Outside the UK?
31 A. Sorry, yes.
32
33 Q. Can I pass now, please, to chickens? You have told us that
34 in the USA Tysons do everything from pre-conception to the
35 finished products?
36 A. That is correct.
37
38 Q. But I want to concentrate, if I may, first of all, on
39 egg-laying chickens which are not part of the broiler
40 operation; they do not go into the McNuggetts, as far as I
41 know, do they?
42 A. That is correct.
43
44 Q. I think you told us that the egg-layers for McDonald's in
45 the United States were owned by a company called Cargill;
46 is that right?
47 A. That is correct.
48
49 Q. In what kind of housing are Cargill's egg-layers kept?
50 A. They have different housing facilities. So, you could
51 find laying hens in battery cages, that some people refer
52 to them, with normally four birds per cage where the eggs
53 fall into a channel and are separated automatically from
54 the birds, where they are supplied with a feed, water and
55 where the environment is controlled.
56
57 Q. Which sort of accommodation do the chickens which lay eggs
58 for McDonald's live in?
59 A. They live in a cage that is cleaned routinely.
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