Day 069 - 19 Dec 94 - Page 60


     
     1        they just do not do it.  They do not feel like it is needed
     2        and most of them they do not use hormones.
     3
     4   Q.   Yes, but when since when?  They were using them a few years
     5        ago, were they not?
     6        A.  As far as I know, they might have been a few people
     7        that have used it, but I do not know of any supplier who
     8        had used hormones in Australia since as far as I can
     9        remember.
    10
    11   Q.   When was the first time you went to Australia?
    12        A.  Two and a half or two years ago.
    13
    14   Q.   So you would not know about what the situation was before
    15        then?
    16        A.  That is correct.  I was told, though, I might add, that
    17        during my conversations with the trade associations, with
    18        the feed lots, with the slaughterhouses, with the cattle
    19        men, they do not believe in the use of hormones in the
    20        sense that they think they can get -- one of the things
    21        that they can advertise their product is to the use of
    22        hormones-free advertisement.  It has nothing to do whether
    23        or not it provides any value to them.  Their value is to
    24        their advertising.
    25
    26   Q.   So that was their main concern about why they did not use
    27        hormonal growth?
    28        A.  They do not use it because they can do a better job of
    29        selling their product, and they depend heavily on export
    30        markets and a lot of them go to the EC, go to all over the
    31        world, Asia.  It is difficult for them when the European
    32        Community requested hormone free, to select cattles that
    33        are grown with hormones or with not.  So, the best way for
    34        them is to not use hormones so they can sell the same
    35        product all over the world and then make a claim that it is
    36        hormone-free.
    37
    38   Q.   Right.  So prior to the EC bringing in the regulations on
    39        hormonal growth promoters, they would not have needed to
    40        worry about it?
    41        A.  Yes, you can make that assumption.  The other
    42        assumption you can make that they did not know how to use
    43        them before that.
    44
    45   Q.   Is it right that laminitis is something of a problem with
    46        feed lots?
    47        A.  Sorry?
    48
    49   Q.   Laminitis?
    50        A.  I do not know what that is. 
    51 
    52   Q.   It is a hoof problem, foot problem? 
    53        A.  Does it exist in cattle?  Yes, it exists in cattle,
    54        yes.
    55
    56   Q.   You have not heard of laminitis?
    57        A.  I do not know what you meant.  I could not understand
    58        what you meant.  I did not know what you are referring to.
    59        There are a number of diseases that are related to the hoof
    60        of the animals that have different terms around the world.

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