Day 114 - 04 Apr 95 - Page 46


     
     1        inaccurate, you will get a proper stun.
     2
     3        Now, the other subject that gives us concern is not only
     4        with pigs (but pigs provide a good example) is the nature
     5        of the immediate shock.  What should be achieved is, if
     6        I use a human analogy, is an epileptic fit, a grand mal
     7        seizure.  But you can get in pigs and in other animals what
     8        is called curarization which is that the animal is
     9        paralysed but can still feel pain but cannot move its legs
    10        and cannot cry out.
    11
    12   Q.   Is that something that is a common problem or is that just
    13        something that only happens occasionally?
    14        A.  It happens quite a bit more than uncommon, I would
    15        say.  It is very difficult to establish if you have not got
    16        all the equipment there.  I am saying that I am worried,
    17        really, that if you are not using 1.3 amps, then there is a
    18        much bigger chance that this will happen.  The 1.3 amp
    19        figure was established by a Dutch group -- I cannot just
    20        remember the man's name -- sometime ago.  I have seen quite
    21        a lot of pigs being stunned with lower amperages.
    22
    23        I also went to see a demonstration and in that
    24        demonstration it was shown that one, I think it was, about
    25        one in four of the uses of the tongs led to an imperfect
    26        stun.  So that was more or less -- that was done with the
    27        use of laboratory equipment in the slaughterhouses.
    28
    29        So, they had to be done again or they had to be given
    30        longer.  The problem also is that in a rush in a
    31        slaughterhouse, if you use a lower amperage, say, you have
    32        to give it seven seconds, is the slaughterman going to
    33        count to seven?  Is there any way in which he can be
    34        assured that the tongs are going to stay on for seven
    35        seconds?
    36
    37        What should happen, in my opinion, what I have tried to
    38        get, is that at least if this is going to be done, the next
    39        pig cannot be slaughtered until the equipment has delivered
    40        the necessary charge, so that as soon as any abuses arise
    41        they will be halted.
    42
    43   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I am interested to know -- I can imagine lots
    44        of ways in which almost anything which is done in this
    45        world can be done inefficiently with an adverse effect --
    46        what I am most concerned about is whether it happens and,
    47        if so, to what extent?
    48        A.  Well, this survey -----
    49
    50   Q.   And where. 
    51        A.  Yes, this survey which gives quantitative results for 
    52        what I have observed myself, but I have not had such 
    53        elaborate equipment, was some work that was done at Bristol
    54        by, I think it is, Dr. Aniel Hanuk or Dr. Hanuk Aniel, I am
    55        not quite sure which the name is, but that has been
    56        published, I think.  I certainly discussed it with him.
    57
    58        The question of having fail-safe equipment has been
    59        developed, and I think it has been developed by a
    60        commercial firm, in order to overcome this problem.  It is

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