Day 102 - 13 Mar 95 - Page 56
1 the sterilization tank and one being used by the person
2 doing the killing.
3
4 Q. It says at No. 5: "Rotating knives. This must be done at
5 least every half an hour".
6 A. Well, that is to ensure that they are kept sharp and
7 this is why they would rotate them in the -- they would
8 have several in the sterilizer which are sharpened usually
9 by another worker, and they are rotated so that they are
10 kept -- so that they are always using a very sharp knife.
11
12 Q. Would that be standard for them to change about every half
13 an hour?
14 A. Yes, it would, yes, very important.
15
16 Q. So in terms of hygiene the same knife would be being used
17 on about two and a quarter thousand birds?
18 A. Yes, except that they are not having to manually kill
19 that many in each -----
20
21 Q. This is the defeathering section, they would all be being
22 defeathered would they not?
23 A. Well they go -- after the neck cutter and after being
24 bled they go into the scald tank and from the scald tank
25 they go through the defeathering area. It is all in the
26 same room.
27
28 Q. What are the knives used for in the defeathering area
29 though?
30 A. They would only be used, as far as I know, for neck
31 cutting. As I say, it is all in the same room, so the
32 sterilizer, this is just one knife sterilizer for that one
33 area.
34
35 MR. JUSTICE BELL: These are for the manual neck cutting?
36 A. Yes, that is correct.
37
38 Q. The fall-back?
39 A. Yes.
40
41 Q. How is the defeathering done in fact?
42 A. The bird after the scald -- the aim the scald tank is
43 to soften the feathers and then the carcasses go through
44 rotating drums which have rubber fingers on them. The
45 rubber fingers actually rub the feathers off the carcass
46 and there are several banks of these drums set in different
47 ways, so that they can get the feathers off the body, the
48 wings and the legs.
49
50 MS. STEEL: Is there a procedure after that that takes place in
51 the same room where parts of the body are removed?
52 A. No. The complete carcass then goes through into
53 another area which is where the evisceration equipment is,
54 so that is a completely separate room.
55
56 Q. When were the breast comforters introduced at Sun Valley?
57 A. A long time ago. I am not sure exactly when, but
58 several years ago.
59
60 Q. Around 1990?
