Day 291 - 31 Oct 96 - Page 38
1 Of course, they could choose not to use any animal products
2 anyway.
3
4 So, at all stages, like I said yesterday, the cruelty is
5 not an unfortunate side effect, it is an actual
6 institutionalised inevitability of deliberate policy that
7 these animals should be kept in such conditions.
8
9 So, to me it is more than utter indifference. It is
10 callous and cynical exploitation of animals as food
11 machines.
12
13 We say on this issue, regarding the witnesses, that our
14 witnesses on this subject were all experienced, credible
15 experts -- the main witnesses; I do not mean the person
16 that just saw the lorry or whatever, who reported what she
17 saw, but our experts on the subject -- they were
18 independent; and the fact that McDonald's made little
19 effort to challenge them, apart from Dr. Long, means that,
20 we say, effectively, they accept their evidence; whereas
21 McDonald's witnesses, apart from Dr. Gregory, who is a
22 slightly different category, are obviously commercially
23 connected to McDonald's, not independent, contradictory,
24 reluctant to admit cruelty. In many cases, the reality and
25 the facts of the situation were only brought out after
26 extensive cross-examination, which has been a feature of
27 this case on all the issues; and we say it has been
28 necessary to do extensive cross-examination because it has
29 been difficult to get at the reality, for whatever reason,
30 behind the slick PR image of McDonald's and their
31 non-independent witnesses.
32
33 The last note I have is the question of: how do we judge
34 animal suffering? I have not actually thought about this
35 very much. But I think Dr. Long is probably the person to
36 deal with that best. If I just think about that for one
37 minute. (Pause)
38
39 It is not just pain. Pain is a more extreme suffering.
40 The main suffering is when an animal is forced to act
41 against its own -- unable to act out its own natural life.
42 On top of that, there may be additional distress; on top of
43 that, there may be pain; there may be emotional trauma,
44 such as having your calves, or whatever, taken away from
45 you at an early age, or being a calf and being taken away
46 from your parents.
47
48 So, the bottom line, really, I think, is that animals are
49 entitled to live out their lives in a natural way, and when
50 they are forced -- when they are prevented from doing that,
51 they will suffer. (Pause)
52
53 MS. STEEL: I have just looked up some bits that I do want to
54 refer to before, and I might as well do them now. I have
55 not found the reference for the 70 slaughter houses used by
56 McKeys, but on day 80, pages 30 to 31, Mr. Walker said that
57 1.3 percent of the national kill of pig meat was used by
58 McKeys for McDonald's. He said -- this is in the UK --
59 2,777,832 pounds of pork were used for McDonald's products
60 every year, which was equivalent to 180,378 pigs, which was
