Day 093 - 28 Feb 95 - Page 35
1 A. I do not know what the other people are asking all the
2 time.
3
4 Q. Is there somebody else who has that responsibility or is it
5 your responsibility?
6 A. No, I said it before, so the people who have that
7 responsibility, we leave that responsibility to their
8 suppliers. We do not feel that is our responsibility. It
9 is their chickens. It is their business. It is in their
10 best interests. If those animals are dead on arrival, they
11 will lose money. So it is in their best interests to
12 obviously not to cause that.
13
14 What I do know that their rates of deaths on arrival are
15 way below anybody else in the business, because we are
16 totally integrated. We have everything pretty much that we
17 need within three miles of our complex. That gives us a
18 tremendous advantage to everything that we do.
19
20 Q. If there was some reason to be concerned about some aspect
21 of the way that suppliers were treating animals, would it
22 be your job to find out about that or would it be somebody
23 else's job in the company?
24 A. Again, it is the supplier's responsibility.
25
26 Q. Yes, but if you thought there was something going wrong
27 with the supplier, your department would investigate that,
28 would it?
29 A. Absolutely.
30
31 Q. You would be responsible for that ultimately, would you?
32 A. There are several people responsible for that -- I am
33 one of them.
34
35 Q. Who are the others? Are they your superiors or are they
36 people under you?
37 A. No, we have Steve Stoncipher who is the Purchasing
38 Director for chicken products in the US. He has that
39 responsibility. There is Linda Aenkel who is responsible
40 for Quality Assurance US. There is Lachele Slangmaker who
41 is specifically responsible for QA, Quality Assurance, of
42 the chicken side of the business as well as others. There
43 is Paul Simmons who has the global responsibility. There
44 is myself and there is management. There is all other
45 people, anybody who visit that plant, who is aware of any
46 problem and works for McDonald's has that responsibility.
47
48 MR. MORRIS: Is there anyone specifically whose job is to be
49 concerned about animal welfare specifically, that is their
50 job?
51 A. We do not have anybody in the company whose specific
52 job is the welfare of animals.
53
54 Q. Do you have an animal welfare department?
55 A. No.
56
57 Q. It is under the general Quality Assurance Department?
58 A. That is correct, Quality Assurance and Purchasing.
59
60 Q. And Purchasing. Has your department ever discontinued a
