Day 018 - 26 Jul 94 - Page 81


     
     1        they should do a ventral neck cut and cut the carotins.
              Since in very recent months they have changed to a ventral
     2        neck cutter.
 
     3   Q.   That is chickens?
              A.  That is broiler chickens, correct.
     4
         MS. STEEL:   Can I ask a couple of things on times?
     5
         MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Can you pause for a moment.  Thank you.
     6        A.  Can I interrupt and answer another one that has
              cropped up in my mind which answers Mr. Morris' question?
     7        Not long ago, within the past year, yes, maybe about a
              year ago in fact, they reduced their line speed and they
     8        divided their line into two killing lines.  Previously
              they were killing birds of up to about 220 birds a minute,
     9        usually running at about 180 to 190 birds a minute.  They
              have now separated it into two lines where males are put
    10        on one line and females are put on another line.  They
              have changed the size of the shackle.
    11
         MR. JUSTICE BELL:  This is the birds themselves, is it?
    12        A.  Correct.  They have changed the size of the shackle
              according to the sex of the bird.  Now males have thicker
    13        shanks and they have a wider gap to put the bird in the
              shackle in which to slit the legs of the bird.  This
    14        actually has a welfare advantage because it means there is
              likely to be less compression of the bone and pain
    15        associated with hanging on.
 
    16   MS. STEEL:   I am just going back slightly, two questions
              although I will give you them one at a time.  Do you know
    17        roughly when they changed, Sun Valley changed from having
              a 13-bird water bath to the 8-bird?
    18        A.  No, I do not know.  I would be guessing.
 
    19   Q.   OK.  What about roughly when they changed from 25
              milliamps to 60 milliamps?
    20        A.  No.
 
    21   Q.   Was it more than five years ago?
              A.  It would probably would have been at the same time;
    22        probable would have been at the same time as the change in
              the water bath itself.
    23
         MR. MORRIS:  In the 80s?
    24        A.  Highly like I think, yes. I suggest you ask
              Dr. Pattison.
    25
         MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You have concentrated on Sun Valley in those 
    26        answers.  Do you know anything about pig farming if you 
              went back ----- 
    27        A.  I have never been -----
 
    28   Q.   --- say something like five years?  You have only made one
              visit to those?
    29        A.  Yes.  I have not been to their pig unit on any
              previous occasion to that.  I had been to plant B, the
    30        beef abattoir plant B, I had been to that abattoir to look
              at their sheep line back in the early 1980s; it might have

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