Day 289 - 29 Oct 96 - Page 38


     
     1        to scalder, he said: "We aim for a minimum of 90 seconds."
     2        That was day 89, page 56, line 1.  As I say, whether or not
     3        that applied at the time when Dr. Gregory was making his
     4        inspection, we do not know.
     5
     6        He also referred, when we were talking about the practice
     7        of shackling the males and females separately for the
     8        slaughter line, he said that it had become the practice to
     9        hang them separately, because growing them separately is
    10        now part of standard management practice, whereas a few
    11        years ago it was not.  That was 89, 54, 54.  I think that
    12        is just -- I mean, it is just really indicative of the huge
    13        number of changes that there have been to the practices
    14        since -----
    15
    16   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Can I just go back to what you were saying
    17        about the changes in the slaughter line?   Did Dr. Pattison
    18        suggest that there were less birds missing the stun bath
    19        after the change in line?
    20
    21   MS. STEEL:   He said something like one in 300 to 400 birds get
    22        to the knife whilst still conscious with the new system --
    23        that was on day 89, page 57 -- which obviously is less than
    24        it had been, though it is still quite a considerable number
    25        in terms of how many per day.  If it was one in 300, it
    26        would be about 570 birds a day going to the knife while
    27        still conscious.
    28
    29   MR JUSTICE BELL:  Do you have the figure for 400?  Do not
    30        worry.  I can work it out.
    31
    32   MS. STEEL:   425.
    33
    34   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Did we have any evidence as to how long the
    35        line ran for in a day?
    36
    37   MS. STEEL:   What, how many hours?
    38
    39   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    40
    41   MS. STEEL:   I have a feeling it was between 8 o'clock and
    42        5 o'clock, but I might be completely wrong about that.
    43        I would have thought actually it would start
    44        earlier. I can't remember how many hours.  I think just
    45        that -- I think there was something said about the OVS
    46        being at the plant every day between 8 o'clock and
    47        5 o'clock.  But, obviously, that might not tie in exactly
    48        with all the hours of the slaughtering process.
    49
    50   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Thank you.  Dr. Gregory said that the time 
    51        from neck cutting to scalding at Sun Valley was in the 
    52        order of two to two and a half minutes.  The usual in the 
    53        UK is two and a half minutes.  It varies in the UK from a
    54        minute and three-quarters to about four and a quarter
    55        minutes.
    56
    57   MS. STEEL:   Right.  OK.  I think it must have been the stun to
    58        the neck cut that Dr. Gregory did not have the time for.  I
    59        did ask him whether it was in his notes, and I did ask
    60        whether or not we could have them sent to us, but we never

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