Day 291 - 31 Oct 96 - Page 24
1 willingly towards the slaughter pan, he said he had never
2 seen them galloping there or even moving, they have to be
3 driven, and that it is very difficult sometimes to move on
4 the one that is stopped without just using brute force and
5 ignorance to try to get all the others to try to push it
6 through. So that means that they jostle and get excited.
7 By 'excited' he was talking about making a noise and
8 pushing one another around, and they would get agitated.
9 That was on page 47.
10
11 He referred on the next page to animals, cattle, trying to
12 escape. He referred on page 48 also to the fact that it is
13 not uncommon throughout the industry for goads to be used,
14 including on sensitive parts of the cattle's body. He made
15 the point, at line 58, about whether or not they are
16 sensitive to the goads. He said, "They are sensitive, that
17 much I know, otherwise they would not use them." Which is
18 precisely the point; they must cause pain to the animals,
19 otherwise they would not have any effect in making the
20 animals move, get away from them.
21
22 He referred at the bottom of page 50 from line 55 onwards
23 to the fact that in a study in Bristol done by Neville
24 Gregory it is shown that about four percent of stuns were
25 not properly carried out on cattle. Obviously, we say that
26 that applies throughout, it applies to the whole industry,
27 and McDonald's are getting supplies from virtually the
28 whole industry -- well, across the industry. They are
29 getting it from one in six abattoirs.
30
31 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I will see if I can get that number. It
32 surprises me that it was so many, because I thought
33 Mr. Oakley was asked about the abattoirs and he gave
34 numbers throughout the country. Or was that something
35 different?
36
37 MR. MORRIS: No, Mr. Oakley was asked the minimum five that he
38 had visited.
39
40 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That he had visited?
41
42 MR. MORRIS: He was wildly unaware, he did not really know.
43 But we had the McKey suppliers. I can't remember how many
44 that was, 14, 15, or something, but somebody somewhere said
45 it was over 50.
46
47 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Leave it there. We will -----
48
49 MS. STEEL: I will try and dig that reference out, anyway.
50
51 MR. MORRIS: I think Dr. Long said there was something like
52 450, or something, in the whole country.
53
54 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I have been told that by Ms. Steel. The 70
55 surprised me, but I am quite prepared to accept that I have
56 forgotten that. If the reference can be found in due
57 course, so be it.
58
59 MS. STEEL: I mean, this is an obvious point, but day 52, line
60 25, he said his concerns regarding the welfare of the
