Day 104 - 15 Mar 95 - Page 68


     
     1        A.  The general comments on catchers, I think we have been
     2        through before, and why we use contract catchers and so
     3        on.  The actual numbers themselves have not changed, the
     4        overall number.
     5
     6   Q.   They have, have they not?  They have done down?
     7        A.  Well, I do not have figures to support that argument.
     8
     9   MR. MORRIS:  Finally, Dr. Pattison, the people at the top of
    10        your company -- you say it is a private company, it does
    11        not have shareholders?
    12
    13   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No, I think they probably call them
    14        "stockholders" in America.  A private company is a term of
    15        art.  There will be shareholders, presumably, but within a
    16        particular group of people.  I could not go out and buy
    17        Cargill shares on the market as a complete outsider.  That
    18        is what it means.
    19        A.  That is correct.
    20
    21   Q.   I have to say my company law is flawed from beginning to
    22        end, but that is the essence of it.  Not everyone can go
    23        and buy Cargill shares; there are limitations on who can
    24        buy and who you can sell them to?
    25        A.  The shares are held by -- it is a family company and
    26        they are not quoted on the stock market.
    27
    28   Q.   When you reinvest in the company, as opposed to paying out
    29        profits in dividends to the shareholders, that does not
    30        mean to say that the shareholders do not benefit because,
    31        hopefully, the reinvestment leads to an increase in the
    32        value, the capital value, of the company, so the value of
    33        your stock or shares in the company increases?
    34        A.  Yes, of course.
    35
    36   MS. STEEL:  Reinvesting would lead to an increase in the numbers
    37        of chickens that you could rear as well and so, therefore,
    38        increase the profits?
    39        A.  It might do, yes.
    40
    41   MR. MORRIS:  Basically, is it not a fact, Mr. Pattison, that
    42        your company is motivated solely by generating profits and,
    43        to that extent, hundreds of millions of animals are quite
    44        unnaturally reared inside for the whole of their lives and
    45        slaughtered completely unnecessarily.  The fact of the
    46        matter is that you are working for a company that is only
    47        interested in profit, basically?
    48        A.  Well, if you wish to hold that opinion, as I said, you
    49        are entitled to it; I do not happen to agree.
    50 
    51   MR. MORRIS:  Thank you. 
    52 
    53                       Re-Examined by Mr. Rampton Q.C.
    54
    55   Q.   Dr. Pattison, several times this afternoon -- most
    56        explicitly in the last five minutes or so -- and several
    57        times yesterday afternoon the suggestion appears to have
    58        been made that you, a qualified veterinary surgeon who took
    59        an oath when you joined the Royal College, are for the sake
    60        of profit indifferent to the welfare of the birds in your

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