Day 090 - 16 Feb 95 - Page 30


     
     1
     2   Q.   -- in general, right.
     3
     4   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What are we in here at the moment, do you
     5        know?  We have had this kind of question before.  What do
     6        you think as you are giving evidence it is, just a
     7        very  .....
     8        A.  To be honest, a light meter is not something I carry as
     9        part of my routine examination equipment.  I think it is
    10        much more sensible to use your common sense.
    11
    12   Q.   You can turn up the dimmer if you feel you need it,
    13        presumably?
    14        A.  Yes, that is right.  I honestly could not say what it
    15        is in here because you have a combination of natural light,
    16        daylight, you have got individual areas where the light
    17        intensity is different.  Of course, that applies in a
    18        poultry house as well.  The light is not the same
    19        everywhere you go; there are light areas and dark areas,
    20        inevitably.
    21
    22   MS. STEEL:   Daylight is between 500 to 5,000 lux depending on
    23        sunshine, that is right, is it not?
    24        A.  If you say so.
    25
    26   Q.   When you said that a typical lighting level is 10 to 20
    27        lux, and that you thought that was quite acceptable, is
    28        that the average?  I mean, are there some that are more
    29        than that and some that are less than that or not?
    30        A.  I would say that is an average figure.  There are
    31        certainly -- there are none that would be lower than that
    32        because we do not find -- there is no advantage in giving
    33        birds too little light.  You might as well give them as
    34        much as you feel they need to keep them active.
    35
    36   Q.   So you feel they need between 10 and 20 to keep them
    37        active?
    38        A.  That is my feeling, yes.
    39
    40   Q.   If you turned it up to 80 or 50, or whatever, would the
    41        birds become more active?
    42        A.  When you turn the lights up you see a general, the
    43        general activity increases; birds get up, move around,
    44        maybe go to feeders, go to drinkers as a result of that
    45        stimulus.  If you then just leave it at that level, they
    46        just tend to go back to the level of activity they were at
    47        before.
    48
    49   Q.   You mentioned yesterday about experiments on light and
    50        dark, on the levels of light, to see how it affected leg 
    51        strength.  Perhaps you would like to turn to page 14 of the 
    52        Farm Animal Welfare Council Report?  At paragraph 37 it 
    53        says:  "The available scientific evidence suggests that
    54        very dim light can cause welfare problems; and that
    55        brighter light can be used to stimulate activity and hence
    56        reduce leg problems".  You are aware of that, I presume?
    57        A.  Yes, yes.
    58
    59   Q.   Lower down in paragraph 38 in the underlined section it
    60        says:  "We therefore recommend that all houses should have

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