Day 289 - 29 Oct 96 - Page 28


     
     1        say about the neck cutting?   (Pause)
     2
     3   MS. STEEL:   Dr. Gregory said on day 19, page 68, line 21, that
     4        in a standard killing line the intention should be to stun
     5        the animal first instantaneously, to not cause undue stress
     6        or pain in the application of the stunning method or
     7        equipment, and to make sure that they do not regain
     8        consciousness.  That is what is required, that is what
     9        should be performed.  He said that if effective stunning
    10        was not carried out, then that was inhumane, although he
    11        added a rider, 'unless the animal was already in grievous
    12        pain', which is not particularly relevant, because he was
    13        talking about not having to stun them if they were needing
    14        to be put out of their misery or something, because there
    15        was no stunning equipment readily available.
    16
    17        But, anyway, the important part is that if effective
    18        stunning was not carried out, then that was inhumane.  The
    19        reference for that is 19, 68, 25.  He said that if, for
    20        example, an animal got an electric shock before being
    21        rendered insensible from getting its beak in the water or,
    22        for example, from pigs where electric tongs are used as
    23        goads, then that would be an example of something that was
    24        inhumane.  That was day 19, page 69, lines 5 to 8.
    25
    26        So we would say that clearly where 13.5 percent of birds
    27        are receiving pre-stun shocks, that is inhumane, and as
    28        McDonald's do not ask their suppliers at Sun Valley to do
    29        something about it, then they are utterly indifferent to
    30        the welfare of those animals.  (Pause)
    31
    32        Sorry, I have notes of this and they are extremely
    33        brief and I cannot remember exactly the context.  But
    34        on day ----
    35
    36   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Why not just read it out and see if
    37        that triggers your -----
    38
    39   MS. STEEL:   It is actually really, really tiring.  It is
    40        like...  I don't know, it is really hard work.
    41
    42   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It may be but we have to try and press on for
    43        everyone's good.  And if you get stuck, remember what I
    44        said to Mr. Morris, just sit down and try and collect your
    45        thoughts, but if you have got a note which you do not
    46        immediately understand, it may be better just to read
    47        through it and someone may understand it, it may come back
    48        to you, rather than having a lengthy pause whereupon the
    49        fog gets greater rather than less.
    50 
    51   MS. STEEL:   That was what I was trying to do, but the fog is 
    52        just building up anyway.  I have a note about page 14 of 
    53        day 20, asking about the time from stun to starting to
    54        recover consciousness.  And I think it is referring to some
    55        other document.  Well, it must be.  It is talking about
    56        some other study, or something, which must have been a
    57        study of Dr. Gregory's, because he said that if -- it was
    58        about the current being 105 milliamps, and in that case the
    59        time when they might start recovering consciousness was 52
    60        seconds.  I asked him:  " So if the current was only 60

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