Day 089 - 15 Feb 95 - Page 16


     
     1        they are very caring people, usually of farming stock
     2        themselves.  They do really care for their animals, whether
     3        they work for a big company or a small company.
     4
     5   Q.   There are attached as appendices to your own statement --
     6        there is no need to look at them now -- five documents
     7        which in varying degrees -- we can all read so I am not
     8        going to ask you to look at them -- relate to the training
     9        of stockmen and to the performance of tasks with an eye to
    10        animal welfare?
    11        A.  Yes.
    12
    13   Q.   They cover a whole lot of other things, like human safety
    14        and so on and so forth, and product quality.  From your
    15        experience of the industry, are such training programmes
    16        and tasks or job descriptions common?
    17        A.  Yes.  This kind of job description is a common and
    18        valuable way of training people and showing anybody that
    19        comes into the industry new exactly how to do the job.
    20
    21   Q.   If one reads them, one finds, does one not, that that
    22        covers the whole of the operation from hatchery right
    23        through to slaughterhouse?
    24        A.  That is correct, yes.
    25
    26   Q.   We can all readily understand that it is easy enough to put
    27        something down on paper.  The question I have is how
    28        assiduous are you and your company in ensuring, so far as
    29        you can, at least standards are maintained in practice?
    30        A.  Well, we have on our farms, for example, we have people
    31        that we call area managers (who are really supervisors) who
    32        are responsible for groups of farms, and it is part of
    33        their duty to make sure that the people working on the farm
    34        know how to do the jobs and are following the correct
    35        procedures, and this is part of regular day-to-day
    36        management practice.
    37
    38   Q.   Are you confident in your position?  This is your
    39        responsibility, is it not?
    40        A.  I am confident that this happens.
    41
    42   Q.   Do you yourself visit the farms and other places to see
    43        that it is happening?
    44        A.  Yes, I certainly do and I can do spot checks as well as
    45        announced visits.
    46
    47   Q.   You mentioned "our farms".  The question I should earlier
    48        have asked you (and forgot) is, does Sun Valley own all the
    49        birds that are hatched and then processed?
    50        A.  The birds are owned by Sun Valley, but we do have a 
    51        large number of contract farmers who are on contract to Sun 
    52        Valley who actually grow them and these are independent 
    53        farmers.
    54
    55   Q.   What sort of supervision or monitoring do they get to
    56        ensure compliance with your animal welfare requirements?
    57        A.  Exactly the same.  We have -- our area managers cover
    58        the contract growers in exactly the same way as they do the
    59        company-owned farms, and this is unusual in industry.
    60        Normally, contract farmers are just left to get on with

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