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,

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