Day 291 - 31 Oct 96 - Page 24


     
     1        willingly towards the slaughter pan, he said he had never
     2        seen them galloping there or even moving, they have to be
     3        driven, and that it is very difficult sometimes to move on
     4        the one that is stopped without just using brute force and
     5        ignorance to try to get all the others to try to push it
     6        through.  So that means that they jostle and get excited.
     7        By 'excited' he was talking about making a noise and
     8        pushing one another around, and they would get agitated.
     9        That was on page 47.
    10
    11        He referred on the next page to animals, cattle, trying to
    12        escape.  He referred on page 48 also to the fact that it is
    13        not uncommon throughout the industry for goads to be used,
    14        including on sensitive parts of the cattle's body.  He made
    15        the point, at line 58, about whether or not they are
    16        sensitive to the goads.  He said, "They are sensitive, that
    17        much I know, otherwise they would not use them."  Which is
    18        precisely the point; they must cause pain to the animals,
    19        otherwise they would not have any effect in making the
    20        animals move, get away from them.
    21
    22        He referred at the bottom of page 50 from line 55 onwards
    23        to the fact that in a study in Bristol done by Neville
    24        Gregory it is shown that about four percent of stuns were
    25        not properly carried out on cattle.  Obviously, we say that
    26        that applies throughout, it applies to the whole industry,
    27        and McDonald's are getting supplies from virtually the
    28        whole industry -- well, across the industry.  They are
    29        getting it from one in six abattoirs.
    30
    31   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   I will see if I can get that number.  It
    32        surprises me that it was so many, because I thought
    33        Mr. Oakley was asked about the abattoirs and he gave
    34        numbers throughout the country.  Or was that something
    35        different?
    36
    37   MR. MORRIS:   No, Mr. Oakley was asked the minimum five that he
    38        had visited.
    39
    40   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   That he had visited?
    41
    42   MR. MORRIS:   He was wildly unaware, he did not really know.
    43        But we had the McKey suppliers.  I can't remember how many
    44        that was, 14, 15, or something, but somebody somewhere said
    45        it was over 50.
    46
    47   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Leave it there.  We will -----
    48
    49   MS. STEEL:   I will try and dig that reference out, anyway.
    50 
    51   MR. MORRIS:   I think Dr. Long said there was something like 
    52        450, or something, in the whole country. 
    53
    54   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I have been told that by Ms. Steel.  The 70
    55        surprised me, but I am quite prepared to accept that I have
    56        forgotten that.  If the reference can be found in due
    57        course, so be it.
    58
    59   MS. STEEL:   I mean, this is an obvious point, but day 52, line
    60        25, he said his concerns regarding the welfare of the

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