Day 291 - 31 Oct 96 - Page 38


     
     1        Of course, they could choose not to use any animal products
     2        anyway.
     3
     4        So, at all stages, like I said yesterday, the cruelty is
     5        not an unfortunate side effect, it is an actual
     6        institutionalised inevitability of deliberate policy that
     7        these animals should be kept in such conditions.
     8
     9        So, to me it is more than utter indifference.  It is
    10        callous and cynical exploitation of animals as food
    11        machines.
    12
    13        We say on this issue, regarding the witnesses, that our
    14        witnesses on this subject were all experienced, credible
    15        experts -- the main witnesses; I do not mean the person
    16        that just saw the lorry or whatever, who reported what she
    17        saw, but our experts on the subject -- they were
    18        independent; and the fact that McDonald's made little
    19        effort to challenge them, apart from Dr. Long, means that,
    20        we say, effectively, they accept their evidence; whereas
    21        McDonald's witnesses, apart from Dr. Gregory, who is a
    22        slightly different category, are obviously commercially
    23        connected to McDonald's, not independent, contradictory,
    24        reluctant to admit cruelty.  In many cases, the reality and
    25        the facts of the situation were only brought out after
    26        extensive cross-examination, which has been a feature of
    27        this case on all the issues; and we say it has been
    28        necessary to do extensive cross-examination because it has
    29        been difficult to get at the reality, for whatever reason,
    30        behind the slick PR image of McDonald's and their
    31        non-independent witnesses.
    32
    33        The last note I have is the question of: how do we judge
    34        animal suffering?   I have not actually thought about this
    35        very much.  But I think Dr. Long is probably the person to
    36        deal with that best.  If I just think about that for one
    37        minute.  (Pause)
    38
    39        It is not just pain.  Pain is a more extreme suffering.
    40        The main suffering is when an animal is forced to act
    41        against its own -- unable to act out its own natural life.
    42        On top of that, there may be additional distress; on top of
    43        that, there may be pain; there may be emotional trauma,
    44        such as having your calves, or whatever, taken away from
    45        you at an early age, or being a calf and being taken away
    46        from your parents.
    47
    48        So, the bottom line, really, I think, is that animals are
    49        entitled to live out their lives in a natural way, and when
    50        they are forced -- when they are prevented from doing that, 
    51        they will suffer.  (Pause) 
    52 
    53   MS. STEEL:   I have just looked up some bits that I do want to
    54        refer to before, and I might as well do them now.  I have
    55        not found the reference for the 70 slaughter houses used by
    56        McKeys, but on day 80, pages 30 to 31, Mr. Walker said that
    57        1.3 percent of the national kill of pig meat was used by
    58        McKeys for McDonald's.  He said -- this is in the UK --
    59        2,777,832 pounds of pork were used for McDonald's products
    60        every year, which was equivalent to 180,378 pigs, which was

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