Day 283 - 21 Oct 96 - Page 27
1 food safety issues, and Maya Hoffe, a very experienced
2 veterinary surgeon -- I am not sure if he is a actually a
3 surgeon, but anyway a vet, a slaughter house vet -- who
4 backed up our position. So it is no wonder that anyone
5 would believe in any of those issues I have already dealt
6 with, before I go over the page, that what was said in the
7 London Greenpeace fact sheet was true and that our belief
8 in it was reasonable.
9
10 I then move on to animals. It is a widespread concern that
11 animal cruelty is inevitable in the meat industry, for
12 animals reared and slaughtered for the meat industry, and
13 it is basically down to plain common sense. In fact,
14 Mr. Rampton himself said during the case, firstly, that
15 murder, someone could quite validly hold that opinion who
16 was opposed to animal suffering. Whether he would agree
17 with it is another question. He also said, although later
18 amended it, the same for the word 'torture'.
19
20 Really, all of these issues -- I have not even mentioned
21 the Veggies fact sheet -- all these issues are the same.
22 The London Greenpeace fact sheet continued to be
23 distributed by Veggies after agreement between McDonald's
24 and their solicitors over a slightly amended version, and
25 apart from environment the rest of the issues were the
26 same. Except in one respect. The animal section changed
27 the words 'torture' and 'murder' to 'slaughter' and
28 'butchery', because McDonald's were only complaining about
29 the heading, not the facts. Now, for whatever tactical
30 reason, I don't know, they are not complaining about the
31 heading, they are complaining about the facts. Which is
32 the opposite.
33
34 So, in any case, I think it is fair to say that the views
35 on animal cruelty and suffering are well in the public
36 domain, and that it is a perfectly valid point of view that
37 some people hold that there should be no animal cruelty or
38 suffering, and that it is not justified to use animals for
39 human benefit in that way.
40
41 Just one other point on the public domain issue. I believe
42 the fact sheet, I think it became clear during the
43 evidence, referred to a report produced by the Farm Animal
44 Welfare Council a year before the fact sheet was produced
45 about concerns over slaughter methods. We went into some
46 of the details in that report, which was an advisory report
47 for the government on evaluating its welfare, what little
48 welfare regulations there are. None of which,
49 incidentally, we would accept as any kind of protection for
50 the unfortunate millions of animals reared and slaughtered
51 for human food. Although we always welcome criticisms, if
52 they are partial, as at least a recognition that there is a
53 problem.
54
55 Coming on to the next point about what is McDonald's
56 awareness of these points. David Walker said -- and I
57 quote, and we will bring the references later -- "As a
58 result of the meat industry the suffering of animals was
59 inevitable." Dr. Gregory, their expert, and
60 Mark Patterson from Sun Valley Suppliers, both were aware
