Day 001 - 28 Jun 94 - Page 11
1 live in the open air in fields. "Their deaths", that is
the animals' deaths, "are bloody and barbaric."
2
Heading: "Murdering a Big Mac". Blob: "In the
3 slaughterhouse, animals often struggle to escape."
False. "Cattle become frantic as they watch the animal
4 before them in the killing-line", false, "being prodded,
beaten," is false, "electrocuted" in one sense is true,
5 "and knifed."
6 "A recent British government report criticised inefficient
stunning methods which frequently result in animals having
7 their throats cut while still fully conscious." In so far
as that sentence is supposed to apply to the animals used
8 for McDonald's, again it is false.
9 "McDonald's are responsible for the deaths of countless
animals by this supposedly humane method. We have the
10 choice to eat meat or not. The 450 million animals killed
for food in Britain every year have no choice at all. It
11 is often said that after visiting an abattoir, people
become nauseous at the thought of eating flesh. How many
12 of us would be prepared to work in a slaughterhouse and
kill the animals we eat?"
13
Another box with the heading: "What is your poison? Meat
14 is responsible for 70% of all food-poisoning incidents,
with chicken and minced meat (as used in burgers) being
15 the worse offenders. When animals are slaughtered, meat
can be contaminated with gut contents, faeces and urine,
16 leading to bacterial infection. In an attempt to
counteract infection in their animals, farmers routinely
17 inject them with doses of antibiotics. These, in addition
to growth-promoting hormone drugs and pesticide residues
18 in their feed, build up in the animals' tissues and can
further damage the health of people on a meat based
19 diet."
20 My Lord, if that box (as your Lordship may conclude it
does) implies or suggests that the person who goes and
21 eats a McDonald's meal is likely to be poisoned by some
kind of organism such as E-coli or salmonella, or is
22 likely to be damaged by hormones or antibiotics in the
meat, then again it is false.
23
We come now to employment. Heading: "What is it like
24 working for McDonald's? There must be a serious problem:
even though 80% of McDonald's workers are part-time, the
25 annual staff turnover is 60% (in the USA it is 300%).
It's not unusual for their restaurant-workers to quit
26 after just four or five weeks. The reasons are not hard
to find." My Lord, that, your Lordship may feel, is
27 plainly a suggestion that the staff turnover is, for
reasons which are about to be described in the leaflet, as
28 high as it is because the working conditions are so poor.
29 Heading: "No unions allowed. Workers in catering do
badly in terms of pay and conditions. They are at work in
30 the evenings and at weekends, doing long shifts in hot,
smelly, noisy environments. Wages are low and chances of
