Day 289 - 29 Oct 96 - Page 19
1 out the catching, they might have time to consider the
2 welfare of the birds to at least some extent. But we would
3 say that in fact in the system that operates at Sun Valley,
4 in common with the broiler industry in general, that the
5 huge numbers of birds that are being reared and slaughtered
6 every day means that it is impossible to give proper
7 consideration to the welfare of the birds.
8
9 For example, when we were questioning Dr. Gregory, we asked
10 him: If you have to pick up a chicken for any reason -- in
11 fact I think this was a question that you ended up asking
12 ----
13
14 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Well, it is, because I have to confess, it
15 is between 40 and 50 years ago, but there was a time when I
16 used to pick up an awful lot of chickens and the only way
17 to do it was to pick them up with two hands and holding
18 their wings against their body.
19
20 MS. STEEL: That is the way I have done it when I have picked
21 up chickens also. Dr. Gregory did reply that from the
22 chicken's point of view only, if it is a broiler of the
23 sort of size that we are talking about here, I would catch
24 it around the body with the wings contained against the
25 body. That was the way that he described it being best
26 from the chicken's point of view.
27
28 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I was not surprised by his answer.
29
30 MS. STEEL: That was day 19, page 62, line 15. Obviously, in
31 our view, it should be done from the chicken's point of
32 view, the chicken has a right to be treated in a humane
33 manner. It probably does not want to be picked up at all,
34 actually but....
35
36 So anyway, the point of that is that effectively every
37 single chicken which is being reared for McDonald's is
38 suffering cruelty during the catching process, let alone at
39 any other time.
40
41 Dr. Pattison said that I think that the average level of
42 dead on arrivals at the slaughter plant was 0.15 to 0.17
43 percent, and that in a day about 170,000 birds are
44 transported from the growing sheds to the slaughter
45 plants. So that means that on their figures alone, it is
46 between 250 to 290 birds which are dead on arrival each
47 day. Obviously that does not count the birds which are
48 injured but do not die, which Dr. Gregory referred to.
49
50 Can I just make some final points or some additional points
51 relating to the broiler houses which come up from the
52 evidence of Mr. Bruton, which I forgot to mention.
53
54 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
55
56 MS. STEEL: There was the example of Cappers Farm, which was
57 run by Mr. Capper. Well, actually this was to do with the
58 catching. And on day 115, page 41, line 20, he starts
59 describing the conditions at that farm. He said that he
60 had one shed the size of two football fields where there
