Day 290 - 30 Oct 96 - Page 36


     
     1
     2   MS. STEEL:   Yes.  He said that research from Germany and Sweden
     3        had shown that teeth clipping could be associated with a
     4        higher prevalence of infectious diseases in the gums and in
     5        the joints of pigs, and that was just one example.
     6
     7   MR JUSTICE BELL:  Again, he was not prepared to resolve that one
     8        way or the other from his own point of view, was he,
     9        putting it against the welfare reasons for doing it?
    10
    11   MS. STEEL:   Right.  I mean, he did say that a lot depended on a
    12        number of things, including the gene types which affects
    13        the genetic effects on behaviour -- yes, the genetic effect
    14        of behaviour on the animal and also on environmental
    15        circumstances, which does indicate that it is partly
    16        dependent on the environment that the pigs are in.  That
    17        was day 18, page 32, line 25.
    18
    19   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Yes.
    20
    21   MS. STEEL:   There is something else I wanted to -- (Pause) I do
    22        not know if I have dealt with this, on the point I was
    23        raising this morning about the piglets being weaned at 24
    24        days.  Dr. Gregory, when he was being cross-examined on day
    25        20, page 56.  We asked him about whether or not the piglets
    26        would prefer to be with their mother, and he said, "It is
    27        difficult to say but no doubt the piglets get satisfaction
    28        from the milk they are deriving from the sow otherwise they
    29        would not be drinking it, and they would continue drinking
    30        it at up to eight weeks of age at least if they were given
    31        the opportunity to.  So you are depriving them of a source
    32        of nutrition which they would otherwise enjoy."  I asked,
    33        "And of natural behaviour?"  He said, "Suckling behaviour
    34        is being curtailed in time, yes."  Obviously, that being
    35        one of the things that come under the five freedoms, the
    36        freedom to express natural patterns of behaviour.
    37
    38        Can I just say, in case this comes up later, the parts of
    39        the farm that Dr. Gregory said that he had visited.  This
    40        is on day 20, page 57.  I was asking Dr. Gregory about
    41        whether or not he knew how the piglets, after they were
    42        weaned at three weeks -- the ones that were indoors -- how
    43        they were kept, and he said, no, he did not know.  I said,
    44        "Did you ask to see the indoor unit?"  He said, "No."  I
    45        said, "Were you asked by the Plaintiffs to have a look at
    46        the indoor unit?"  He said, "No, I was asked to report on
    47        what I was shown."  So McDonald's did not say to
    48        Dr. Gregory, 'Can you go and inspect the indoor unit and do
    49        a report on it'.
    50 
    51   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Yes.  (Pause). 
    52 
    53   MS. STEEL:   Going on to slaughter, we heard from Dr. Gregory
    54        and Mr. Bowes that the pigs were slaughtered at a rate of
    55        220 to 240 an hour at the company's own slaughter house,
    56        and that between 9,000 and 10,000 pigs were slaughtered
    57        every week at the Bowes plant.  I have not got a reference
    58        for that, because it is in Dr. Gregory's statement, which
    59        I was taking as having been read.
    60

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