Day 066 - 14 Dec 94 - Page 23
1
2 Q. Can I ask you to tell us whether you formulated in your own
3 mind what are the considerations which bear upon the
4 question of animal welfare, so far as you personally are
5 concerned?
6 A. Yes, you can.
7
8 Q. Then please tell us.
9 A. I would divide it into two areas: One is the
10 psychological area, the other is the physiological area --
11 needs, if you will.
12
13 Q. The, sorry?
14 A. I would divide them into -----
15
16 Q. Yes, psychological and physiological, and then you
17 redefined physiological?
18 A. Yes, I would define physiological needs as the care and
19 management of the animals, so that it is -- so that there
20 is not subjected to abuse from hunger, from thirst or from
21 any of their biological needs, from pain, from diseases, or
22 maltreatment. I would define the care and management of
23 their psychological needs as the care and management of
24 fear as well as their expression of their natural
25 behaviour.
26
27 Q. I am going to ask you in detail later on about each of the
28 three species with which we are concerned here, cattle,
29 pigs and chickens, so far as McDonald's are concerned. Can
30 I ask you this first, though: Have you yourself studied in
31 the course of your academic studies or in the course of
32 your practical experience, the effects which an animal's
33 environment may have upon its psychological well-being?
34 A. Yes, I have.
35
36 Q. How easy is it to translate human perceptions of those
37 things into, as it were, the animal mind?
38 A. Relative -- it depends on the conditions but there are
39 times where it is easy recognisable and there are times
40 where it is not.
41
42 Q. There are times then when one needs to use a degree of
43 caution in interpreting what one sees in the animal's
44 behaviour, for example?
45 A. That is correct.
46
47 Q. Can I then take the three species in turn? First of all,
48 cattle: For this purpose, can you concentrate, please, on
49 the United States which is by far and away McDonald's
50 single largest market?
51 A. That is correct.
52
53 Q. Where do cattle in the United States live? Where are they
54 grown, reared?
55 A. They are grown basically throughout the United States
56 in every country. However, their concentration in the
57 biggest numbers in terms of farm or animals are in the
58 States of Texas, Colorado and Nebraska.
59
60 Q. What conditions do they grow up in? Are they kept in
