Day 104 - 15 Mar 95 - Page 68
1 A. The general comments on catchers, I think we have been
2 through before, and why we use contract catchers and so
3 on. The actual numbers themselves have not changed, the
4 overall number.
5
6 Q. They have, have they not? They have done down?
7 A. Well, I do not have figures to support that argument.
8
9 MR. MORRIS: Finally, Dr. Pattison, the people at the top of
10 your company -- you say it is a private company, it does
11 not have shareholders?
12
13 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, I think they probably call them
14 "stockholders" in America. A private company is a term of
15 art. There will be shareholders, presumably, but within a
16 particular group of people. I could not go out and buy
17 Cargill shares on the market as a complete outsider. That
18 is what it means.
19 A. That is correct.
20
21 Q. I have to say my company law is flawed from beginning to
22 end, but that is the essence of it. Not everyone can go
23 and buy Cargill shares; there are limitations on who can
24 buy and who you can sell them to?
25 A. The shares are held by -- it is a family company and
26 they are not quoted on the stock market.
27
28 Q. When you reinvest in the company, as opposed to paying out
29 profits in dividends to the shareholders, that does not
30 mean to say that the shareholders do not benefit because,
31 hopefully, the reinvestment leads to an increase in the
32 value, the capital value, of the company, so the value of
33 your stock or shares in the company increases?
34 A. Yes, of course.
35
36 MS. STEEL: Reinvesting would lead to an increase in the numbers
37 of chickens that you could rear as well and so, therefore,
38 increase the profits?
39 A. It might do, yes.
40
41 MR. MORRIS: Basically, is it not a fact, Mr. Pattison, that
42 your company is motivated solely by generating profits and,
43 to that extent, hundreds of millions of animals are quite
44 unnaturally reared inside for the whole of their lives and
45 slaughtered completely unnecessarily. The fact of the
46 matter is that you are working for a company that is only
47 interested in profit, basically?
48 A. Well, if you wish to hold that opinion, as I said, you
49 are entitled to it; I do not happen to agree.
50
51 MR. MORRIS: Thank you.
52
53 Re-Examined by Mr. Rampton Q.C.
54
55 Q. Dr. Pattison, several times this afternoon -- most
56 explicitly in the last five minutes or so -- and several
57 times yesterday afternoon the suggestion appears to have
58 been made that you, a qualified veterinary surgeon who took
59 an oath when you joined the Royal College, are for the sake
60 of profit indifferent to the welfare of the birds in your
