Day 101 - 10 Mar 95 - Page 67


     
     1        A.  Yes.
     2
     3   Q.   Do or do not battery chickens have freedom from hunger and
     4        thirst?
     5        A.  Yes, they do.
     6
     7   Q.   Do they have freedom from discomfort?
     8        A.  Yes, they do.
     9
    10   Q.   Do they have freedom from pain, injury or disease?
    11        A.  Yes, they do.
    12
    13   Q.   How does their freedom from pain, injury or disease compare
    14        with those of what might be called free range chickens?
    15        A.  Well, the rates of disease are much higher in free
    16        range chickens and there is obviously a greater danger of
    17        injury from foxes, and the such like, that could get into
    18        the compound.  So, the rates of free range for those are
    19        high, I would say.
    20
    21   Q.   Apart from the possibility of dust-baths, which we have not
    22        yet had established in this court, never mind had any
    23        evidence from the Defendants about, what normal patterns of
    24        behaviour do you think (if any) battery chickens are
    25        deprived of?
    26        A.  I cannot think of any.  I cannot really think of any.
    27
    28   Q.   They cannot fly, can they?
    29        A.  No, they cannot.
    30
    31   Q.   Do you think that flying is normal to the breed or strain
    32        of chickens that become layers in battery cages?
    33        A.  No, I do not.
    34
    35   Q.   Do battery chickens' layers have freedom from fear?
    36        A.  Battery chickens -- yes, total freedom from fear.
    37
    38   Q.   How, in your opinion -- and I am interested in your opinion
    39        as a McDonald's person -- how, in your opinion, does that
    40        freedom for the battery chicken compare with the condition
    41        of a free range chicken?  Let us take an idealised picture
    42        of a chicken in an old fashioned, we might call it, old
    43        McDonald's farmyard?
    44        A.  Well, obviously, there are factors of fear there from
    45        outside elements that would not be present in a battery
    46        shed.  You obviously have predators.  There is also some
    47        fighting between the birds which does not happen in battery
    48        houses.
    49
    50   Q.   It does not? 
    51        A.  No, I have never seen it. 
    52 
    53   Q.   Thank you.  May we now turn to something a little bit more
    54        precise, perhaps.  I hope we can do this without turning it
    55        up, but we may have to.  Do you remember in those charts,
    56        those summary sheets from Orleon that we looked at earlier
    57        in volume 8, there was a list of suppliers, the first of
    58        which in the column was Grandstand Road?
    59        A.  Yes, I remember.
    60

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