Day 288 - 28 Oct 96 - Page 39
1 activity and improve bird welfare, we believe brighter
2 light to be necessary. We therefore recommend that all
3 houses should have light levels sufficient to allow all
4 birds to see and be seen clearly. We consider that a
5 suitable average light intensity is likely to be at least
6 20 lux throughout the house at bird eye height and the
7 industry should be encouraged to adopt this level of
8 illuminance.
9
10 Just to point out that obviously again this is a
11 recommendation being made by the very committee that Dr.
12 Patteson sits on and that his company is disregarding that
13 recommendation, by keeping the lighting levels normally at
14 between 10 and 20 lux.
15
16 And also in the same document, on page 13, under paragraph
17 35, it states that intensively reared broilers are usually
18 kept in artificial light except for a short period of
19 darkness of about 20 to 30 minutes each day. This period
20 ensures that the birds become used to total darkness
21 preventing panic in the event of power failure and
22 assisting with the biological development of diurnal ribbon
23 (?). And then underlined, the Council supports this
24 practice and recommends a regulation to require that all
25 birds be provided with a period of darkness in every 24
26 hours. We suggest that this period should be at least 30
27 minutes.
28
29 And again, Sun Valley typically having a period of 20 to 30
30 minutes of darkness in any 24 hour period do not follow
31 those recommendations, and that is the minimum
32 recommendation.
33
34 And on day 90, page 30, line 43, Dr. Patteson said he was
35 aware of the reported evidence suggesting that brighter
36 light can stimulate activity and so reduce leg problems in
37 the chickens.
38
39 He did say that the lighting at Sun Valley could be turned
40 up to 200 lux but that routine inspections were only done
41 at 20 lux. That was day 90, page 29, line 60. So clearly
42 there is not even anything standing in the way of them
43 turning up the lighting, but they are choosing nevertheless
44 to ignore the recommendations, effectively because if they
45 turn the light up, as we have heard, the general activity
46 of the birds increases and it can result in aggression
47 between the birds and result in ----
48
49 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I was going to ask. I thought there was
50 more to it than just ----
51
52 MS. STEEL: Well, obviously if they get too energetic it means
53 they are not going to put on weight as fast.
54
55 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I have that in mind as well.
56
57 MS. STEEL: So it is all a profit motivated reason for denying
58 the welfare considerations.
59
60 Dr. Patteson said that the average mortality rate to 52
