Day 289 - 29 Oct 96 - Page 21
1
2 He said that there was a particular problem with the older
3 sheds which was to do with the air-conditioning, and he
4 said that Sun Valley had said it was to do with the --
5 because of the air conditioning they could not get the
6 sawdust dried out so quickly, and also the older sheds had
7 soil based floors rather than concrete floors, where the
8 soil base was always wet because it never dried out. That
9 is actually on day 115, page 42.
10
11 Obviously, that refers back to the point I was making
12 earlier about the fact that not all Sun Valley units used
13 waste paper as the environment/index.html">litter, that some of them were using the
14 sawdust, and therefore that the unit that Dr. Gregory saw
15 was not typical of the business as a whole.
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17 I asked about was the environment/index.html">litter or parts of it ever flooded,
18 and he said, yes, with the drinkers that broke or if the
19 chickens had flapped or spooked and knocked the drinkers
20 over, there would be floods in the shed, new and old. He
21 said that that happened on numerous occasions, at least
22 twice or three times a week. He said that it usually
23 affected just part of the shed but that sometimes there
24 would be like a massive flood which would cover a quarter
25 of the shed. This is all on page 42 of day 115.
26
27 I think this is quite an important part to read because he
28 does go on to say that the conditions in the sheds improved
29 during the time that he was working for Sun Valley. He
30 said that to the latter end of his days at Sun Valley it
31 did get better because they were building new sheds and
32 they were trying to do away with the old sheds, although he
33 said that he would say there were more bad sheds than there
34 were good ones. He actually said that some of the sheds
35 should never have been allowed to be keeping chickens
36 anyway. Obviously, bearing in mind that he finished
37 working for Sun Valley in 1993, the changeover is basically
38 taking place after -- well, after the writs were served on
39 us. Can I just say that.... Sorry.
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41 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
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43 MS. STEEL: On the same page, page 42, he does actually refer
44 to the farm called Thomas and Monkland where the fibreglass
45 was hanging in the shed and there was water running
46 continuously, and whenever Sun Valley were approached about
47 this farm they said, "Oh, yes, we will get it sorted," and
48 he said that went on for four years and it was never sorted
49 even by the time he had left. I think that is actually the
50 farm I was referring to when I mentioned that Dr. Pattison
51 had basically confirmed that that was true.
52
53 I think I have finished on Mr. Bruton.
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55 MR. JUSTICE BELL: We will break off there until two o'clock.
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57
58 (Luncheon Adjournment)
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