Day 289 - 29 Oct 96 - Page 25
1 stunned, which he agreed could cause suffering. That was
2 in his statement, I have no doubt that it was brought up in
3 evidence at some stage. He said he agreed, when it was put
4 to him that the stunning and killing methods that were used
5 at Sun Valley did not comply with the government's code of
6 practice and might lead to distress and pain for the
7 birds. The Codes of Practice actually state that it is
8 desirable to induce a cardiac arrest at stunning. If that
9 is not achieved it is important to sever both carotid
10 arteries in the neck in order to ensure a prompt death
11 without resumption of consciousness.
12
13 As we know from the evidence heard in this case, Sun Valley
14 were not severing both carotid arteries. He says it was --
15 it is really difficult not being able to do it from the
16 statement, actually.
17
18 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If you have got it in his statement, give me
19 the page in his statement, rather than nothing at all.
20
21 MS. STEEL: OK. Well, he says in his statement about the Codes
22 of Practice and the desirability to induce cardiac arrest
23 at stunning, or if not it was important to sever both
24 carotid arteries in order to ensure a prompt death without
25 resumption of consciousness. He says this is because the
26 carotid arteries supply the brain with blood. If, on the
27 other hand, the vessels at the back of the neck are
28 severed, blood can be continued to be supplied to the brain
29 during the early part of the bleeding period. This is all
30 on page 7 of his statement. The neck cutters used by
31 Sun Valley were designed to cut the back of the neck. When
32 he examined the wounds the neck cutter was severing one or
33 both of the vertebral arteries in all the birds, the spinal
34 cord in eighty three percent of the birds, only one percent
35 of the carotid arteries in 33 percent of the birds. He
36 summarises it by saying that the birds were not receiving a
37 cardiac arrest at stunning and not receiving a vertebral
38 neck cut. That is, all the birds.
39
40 MR. RAMPTON: The reference in the transcript for the carotid
41 artery and cardiac arrest is page 82, day 18.
42
43 MR JUSTICE BELL: Thank you.
44
45 MS. STEEL: He gives more details about the slaughter process,
46 and he concludes, basically, by accepting that the system
47 employed for stunning and killing the birds was not ideal
48 from the welfare point of view, although here it says it
49 was not to be faulted in terms of recovery of consciousness
50 during the bleeding period. But I think that is
51 by-the-by. The point is, even seeing things from the frame
52 of mind where commercial considerations are taken into
53 consideration, he is saying that the stunning and killing
54 of the birds was not ideal from the welfare point of view.
55
56 He also concluded that one percent of the birds have
57 residual brain stem activity at the point in which they
58 enter the scalding tank.
59
60 To just add that on day 19, page 67, lines 5 to 27,
