Day 290 - 30 Oct 96 - Page 27


     
     1        says, "I will welcome it when the dry sow stalls are banned
     2        totally in this country."  The reference for that is day
     3        88, page 68, line 44.  He said the reason why he would
     4        welcome it.  If I just read through - "I will welcome it
     5        when dry sow stalls are banned totally in this country
     6        because the restriction of the sow I personally think it is
     7        not a good method of animal production, for an animal to be
     8        shut in the stall for all that time or tied to a tether, it
     9        is not comfortable."  And that is on day 88, page 68.  He
    10        agreed that a typical dry sow stall would be about 2.1
    11        metres by 0.6 of a metre.  Day 88, page 71, line 40.
    12
    13        So, here we have a supplier of McDonald's admitting that it
    14        is not good for the animal to be shut in the stall for all
    15        that time, it is not comfortable; basically, that it is
    16        inhumane.  And yet whilst they no longer use them in their
    17        own farms they still took sows, or they still took meat and
    18        pigs, from suppliers which were using dry sow stalls, and
    19        they still do.  Either they are indifferent to that or they
    20        are putting commercial considerations before the welfare of
    21        the animals.  Somewhere else in his evidence he did
    22        actually say that about seven years ago up to 50 percent of
    23        the suppliers would have been using the dry sow stalls.  I
    24        have not got the reference for that on me.  But I can find
    25        it.
    26
    27   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Yes.  (Pause) Do not look for it now.
    28
    29   MS. STEEL:   I have a note, which I think he must have said on
    30        day 96, that twelve percent of their suppliers still use
    31        the dry sow stalls.  So I think when he came back he must
    32        have revised his figure after making inquiries.  So,
    33        effectively, for virtually their entire lives a large
    34        percentage, certainly at the time of the alleged libel, of
    35        the pigs which were reared by Bowes, or by their suppliers,
    36        were spending-----
    37
    38   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You mean a large proportion of the sows?
    39
    40   MS. STEEL:   Yes, sorry.  Effectively, for virtually their
    41        entire lives a large proportion of the sows kept under the
    42        Bowes name, for want of a better way of describing it, were
    43        being incarcerated in a tiny cage.  I mean, it has not got
    44        a roof on it, but being incarcerated in a tiny stall with
    45        no freedom of movement whatsoever.  Obviously, we would
    46        consider that to be competely inhumane.
    47
    48        I think he said something about why he did not do away with
    49        the farrowing crate, and he said something about not having
    50        other options.  It was pointed out that they could have all 
    51        the sows outside, using the outdoor system, but he said 
    52        that that would be much more expensive and that there was 
    53        only a limited market for the sale of that product.
    54        Obviously, that applies to McDonald's because they are not
    55        willing to pay the higher price for the outdoor pork.  The
    56        reference for it being more expensive was day 88, page 69,
    57        line 23.
    58
    59   MR JUSTICE BELL:  Day?
    60

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