Day 289 - 29 Oct 96 - Page 28
1 say about the neck cutting? (Pause)
2
3 MS. STEEL: Dr. Gregory said on day 19, page 68, line 21, that
4 in a standard killing line the intention should be to stun
5 the animal first instantaneously, to not cause undue stress
6 or pain in the application of the stunning method or
7 equipment, and to make sure that they do not regain
8 consciousness. That is what is required, that is what
9 should be performed. He said that if effective stunning
10 was not carried out, then that was inhumane, although he
11 added a rider, 'unless the animal was already in grievous
12 pain', which is not particularly relevant, because he was
13 talking about not having to stun them if they were needing
14 to be put out of their misery or something, because there
15 was no stunning equipment readily available.
16
17 But, anyway, the important part is that if effective
18 stunning was not carried out, then that was inhumane. The
19 reference for that is 19, 68, 25. He said that if, for
20 example, an animal got an electric shock before being
21 rendered insensible from getting its beak in the water or,
22 for example, from pigs where electric tongs are used as
23 goads, then that would be an example of something that was
24 inhumane. That was day 19, page 69, lines 5 to 8.
25
26 So we would say that clearly where 13.5 percent of birds
27 are receiving pre-stun shocks, that is inhumane, and as
28 McDonald's do not ask their suppliers at Sun Valley to do
29 something about it, then they are utterly indifferent to
30 the welfare of those animals. (Pause)
31
32 Sorry, I have notes of this and they are extremely
33 brief and I cannot remember exactly the context. But
34 on day ----
35
36 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Why not just read it out and see if
37 that triggers your -----
38
39 MS. STEEL: It is actually really, really tiring. It is
40 like... I don't know, it is really hard work.
41
42 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It may be but we have to try and press on for
43 everyone's good. And if you get stuck, remember what I
44 said to Mr. Morris, just sit down and try and collect your
45 thoughts, but if you have got a note which you do not
46 immediately understand, it may be better just to read
47 through it and someone may understand it, it may come back
48 to you, rather than having a lengthy pause whereupon the
49 fog gets greater rather than less.
50
51 MS. STEEL: That was what I was trying to do, but the fog is
52 just building up anyway. I have a note about page 14 of
53 day 20, asking about the time from stun to starting to
54 recover consciousness. And I think it is referring to some
55 other document. Well, it must be. It is talking about
56 some other study, or something, which must have been a
57 study of Dr. Gregory's, because he said that if -- it was
58 about the current being 105 milliamps, and in that case the
59 time when they might start recovering consciousness was 52
60 seconds. I asked him: " So if the current was only 60
