Day 113 - 03 Apr 95 - Page 58
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2 Q. This was from Mr. Bowes, was it?
3 A. I think it was, yes. I actually have to admit that
4 I weigh just under 90 kilogrammes and I am 1.8 metres
5 high. I can be imagined as a vertical form of a pig
6 because pigs are quite like human beings in many ways. If
7 I were on my knees and elbows I would have my 1.8 area and
8 I would have .3 of a metre wide. Now .3 of a metre is
9 actually that space, roughly an A4. The farrowing pen
10 described was actually twice as large as that, that width.
11 I think, you asked me about welfare matter, for a lively
12 and active animal like a pig, which at 90 kilogrammes is
13 just before puberty, if you like a little boy, or if you
14 like to think of a little puppy, that is quite
15 extraordinary constraint and frustration of its natural
16 tendencies. Now the Farm Animal Welfare Council, whose
17 codes we go by quite a bit, they are quite good codes in
18 many ways, would find that that is an infringement of one
19 its essential tenets, one of its essential five tenets, and
20 so I would put to the court that if I am asked about
21 welfare, that also is a very serious welfare constraint.
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23 Q. That is in the finishing unit, is it?
24 A. Yes, that was up to 90 kilogrammes for what we would
25 call bacon pigs, baconers.
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27 Q. We do not seem to be doing this in the same systematic way
28 we did it with cattle, but one thing we wanted to ask about
29 dry sow stalls, is what was their prevalence at the end of
30 the 1980s, what percentage of pigs?
31 A. It was over 50 per cent. I would think well over 50
32 per cent.
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34 Q. To go back to the farrowing crate, I think you said the
35 pigs are kept there for between 21 and 24 days; is that
36 correct?
37 A. Yes, they would then be called weanlings or weaners.
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39 Q. Sows would be kept there, yes, sows?
40 A. Piglets would be kept adjacent.
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42 Q. What is your view on the effect of the sows' welfare of
43 being in a farrowing crate for three weeks?
44 A. I think that it causes her a lot of distress, she
45 cannot mother properly. The problem essentially is not
46 just the crate; it is the expectation that she has to
47 manage this enormous number of piglets because you see wild
48 swine would only have about six piglets a year, whereas
49 these mothers are expected to bring up 25. That is, as
50 I say, a high perinatal mortality rate. I actually saw the
51 prototypes of the RSPCA's freedom farrowing crate which
52 occupied -- you had eight of those in a space that would
53 have been occupied by 12 of the old fashioned sort, and
54 they were supposedly improved but actually the mortality
55 rate was higher in those than it was in the old fashioned
56 ones. It is very difficult to find any system, except a
57 fairly extensive one, where the sow can properly mother so
58 many piglets.
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60 Q. So that is a problem, is it, of the ----
