Day 115 - 06 Apr 95 - Page 41
1 A. We always asked even -- I am only young compared to
2 some of the people I worked for at Sun Valley, the length
3 of time some of the people were there, were there for 20
4 years, men so they were in their 55s and 60s, and they
5 always said: "We do not understand why thinnings is
6 carried out in the daylight, why do they not carry it out
7 in the night because the younger birds are not quite so
8 flighty and it saves a lot of stress on the birds and
9 smothering, if it was carried out at night". But the
10 management said at that time: "We cannot do it that way
11 because this is the way we have got to have the birds for
12 our suppliers".
13
14 Q. Did you ever load chickens at a farm owned or run by
15 Mr. Capper?
16 A. Yes.
17
18 Q. Can you just tell us how the chickens were kept on that
19 farm.
20 A. He had one shed the size of two football fields where
21 there was probably 40,000 chickens; then he had another
22 shed which we used to call "the dreaded Capper's" because
23 it was a loft in a very confined spaced where they carry
24 probably 12 to 15,000 -- I am not 100 per cent sure on the
25 numbers -- in a loft where you walked in a very confined
26 space and loaded the chickens into a chute or throw them
27 into a chute to go down on to a table 20 foot below and
28 then loaded into modules.
29
30 Q. So they were not handed down individually?
31
32 MR. JUSTICE BELL: How far below?
33 A. 20 feet or approximately 20 feet, sir, into a steel
34 chute.
35
36 MS. STEEL: Was that like a pipe?
37 A. It is like a tube, if you can, yes, if you imagine a
38 water pipe and just a hole through the centre down on to a
39 table highered up into a loft.
40
41 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Could you show me what the diameter of the
42 chute would be with your hands?
43 A. Probably a foot, 18 inches diameter.
44
45 MS. STEEL: Then what happened when the birds landed on the
46 table?
47 A. Well, if you can imagine coming down a chute at 15 or
48 20 feet, after throwing them into a chute, the speed they
49 would hit the table. They would hit the table, some would
50 stay on the table, some would go on the floor and the
51 people below would pick them off the table and load them
52 into the modules.
53
54 Q. Moving away from Mr. Capper in particular, at the farms you
55 visited what was the condition of the environment/index.html">litter that you saw?
56 A. In some of the sheds the environment/index.html">litter would be acceptable and
57 in some of the sheds it would be appalling. If the birds
58 had Gumboro, it would be full of chickens' droppings. The
59 ammonia would be terrific. The smell and the stench would
60 be something else. You would have to smell it to believe
