Day 289 - 29 Oct 96 - Page 20


     
     1        were probably about 40,000 chickens, then he had another
     2        shed which we used to call the dreaded Cappers because it
     3        was in a loft in a very confined space with probably about
     4        twelve to fifteen thousand birds.  He said he was not a
     5        hundred percent sure of the numbers in the loft.  And you
     6        had to walk into a very confined space and load the
     7        chickens into a chute or throw them into a chute to
     8        basically slide down the chute onto a table 20 foot below,
     9        where they would then be loaded into modules.  And he
    10        described it as being like a steel pipe and he said the
    11        diameter was about a foot or a foot and a half.
    12
    13        I asked him about what happened when the birds landed on
    14        the table.  He said:  Well, if you can imagine coming down
    15        a chute at 15 or 20 foot after throwing them into the chute
    16        the speed that they would hit the table.  They would hit
    17        the table, some would stay on the table, some would go on
    18        the floor, and the people below would pick them off the
    19        table and load them into modules.
    20
    21        I think we heard other evidence about -- I am not sure if
    22        it was about Mr. Capper's farm or about another farm, where
    23        the conditions seemed particularly bad, and I cannot
    24        remember the reference for this, but I do remember Dr.
    25        Pattison, and I think it was in answer to your questions,
    26        admitting that the conditions were far from satisfactory
    27        and basically they had carried on for years and that is far
    28        from satisfactory by their standards, and yet they had
    29        carried on for years allowing them to continue to be a
    30        supplier.  Which we would say is obviously not what you
    31        would expect from a company which asserts that it has high
    32        standards in relation to animal welfare.
    33
    34        Actually I do not know whether that high standards of
    35        animal welfare is something that Sun Valley say about
    36        themselves or whether I have got it from -- I do know that
    37        it is in the McDonald's policy thing, that they claim to
    38        only deal with the companies with the highest standards of
    39        animal welfare.  (Pause).
    40
    41   MR. MORRIS:   It is in the press release that we counterclaimed
    42        against; McDonald's will only deal with suppliers who meet
    43        the highest standards of animal welfare.
    44
    45   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Thank you.
    46
    47   MS. STEEL:   Obviously if that was true, they would have
    48        discontinued Sun Valley a long time ago, or perhaps, I do
    49        not know, maybe Sun Valley -- maybe the whole industry is
    50        all so bad there is not much to choose between them, so the 
    51        highest standards were meaningless. 
    52 
    53        A general point about environment/index.html">litter, the environment/index.html">litter in the sheds.
    54        Mr. Bruton describes the environment/index.html">litter in the sheds on day 115,
    55        page 41, line 56.  He says:  In some of the sheds the
    56        environment/index.html">litter would be acceptable and in some of the sheds it
    57        would be appalling.  And he describes particularly the
    58        conditions when the birds had gumboro, in which case the
    59        ammonia would be terrific, the smell and the stench would
    60        be something else.

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