Day 020 - 28 Jul 94 - Page 15
1
Q. If you could look at the defendants' documents, No. 105?
2 A. Which file?
3 Q. In the blue file.
4 MR. RAMPTON: Which list?
5 MS. STEEL: The first list.
A. Blue bundle VI, you say?
6
MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is blue bundle III and it goes up to 100
7 and then starts again. It is 6, apparently. "Kinder Ways
To Kill", is that it?
8
MS. STEEL: It is 105 actually, "The Slaughter of Food
9 Animals".
A. Right.
10
Q. On page 10 it says: "The problems involved with the
11 stunning and slaughter of poultry are complex but
essentially can be divided into three main areas.
12 Firstly, that some birds may miss the stunning bath",
which is what has occurred here, and then, "the voltage
13 and current flowing through the bird's body may be
insufficient to render the bird unconscious for long
14 enough before death supervenes due to blood loss". It
also goes on to say: "During bleeding out, only one side
15 of the neck is normally cut. Scientific evidence has
shown that under these conditions it may be as long as six
16 minutes before brain failure ensues".
A. Sounds right.
17
Q. It goes on to say, "All birds should, therefore, be killed
18 instead of being temporarily stunned", so they are making
the same recommendations as you?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. They explain how that can be done and then it says, "the
RSPCA urges the remainder of poultry processors to do the
21 same without delay".
A. Yes. These problems over the times which we have been
22 discussing become irrelevant when you kill at stunning.
23 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Sorry?
A. These discussions that we have been having about 52
24 seconds, the time sequence, become irrelevant when you
induce a cardiac arrest at the time of stunning.
25
MS. STEEL: So you and the RSPCA agree the best method would
26 be to use the stun kill method?
A. I do.
27
Q. Do you know why Sun Valley poultry are not using that
28 method?
A. I do.
29
Q. Why do they say they are not using it?
30 A. Because of trials which they have done in their
establishment at Hereford which have shown that when they
