Day 103 - 14 Mar 95 - Page 47
1 stunner, but I am not sure how long we had that in. I am
2 very sorry. I just cannot answer that question. The whole
3 point about stunning is it really does not -- the voltage
4 and the amperage are guidelines only. The important thing
5 is that you make the birds unconscious.
6
7 MS. STEEL: Can you explain why the amperage that you use is
8 way below all the recommendations?
9 A. As I have explained, we use a direct current stunner.
10 The characteristics seem to be different from an AC stunner
11 and the important thing is that we make the birds
12 unconscious. Also, as I have said before, the system has
13 been regularly inspected by MAFF veterinary officials and
14 they say it is satisfactory.
15
16 Q. What investigations have they done into using the type of
17 current that you are using?
18 A. The only -- we are the only plant that uses the
19 particular equipment that we have, so they will not have
20 done any other investigations.
21
22 Q. So they are taking your word for it that it is OK?
23 A. No, they are taking their own observations of how our
24 plant operates.
25
26 Q. When Dr. Gregory made his visit he said that the fact that
27 you were severing spinal cords would mask unconsciousness?
28 A. He did say that.
29
30 Q. So you are not actually able to tell whilst the birds are
31 being stunned whether or not it has been effective?
32 A. That is a particular observation of a particular
33 situation. As well as severing spinal cord, we were also
34 severing the carotid artery on that side. In other words,
35 it was a sideways cut and there is a possibility, as he
36 said, that you could mask whether birds were recovering
37 consciousness, but we still observe the correct bleeding
38 times, so I think it is a relatively academic argument,
39 personally. I would also say -----
40
41 Q. That is also against the recommendations, is it not?
42 A. I was just going to go on and say (because I knew you
43 would ask me), we have changed specifically his
44 recommendation. We have now changed our system so that we
45 carry out a ventral cut of the neck, and we could not do
46 that immediately because we could not identify any very
47 effective equipment. Now that we have identified the
48 equipment, that has been installed and we now carry out a
49 ventral neck cut which gets away from the possible
50 criticism that we could have been severing spinal cord and
51 not all the major blood vessels.
52
53 Q. It was more than you could have been; you were severing the
54 spinal cord in the vast majority of the cases and you were
55 not severing the carotid arteries either.
56 A. I would not accept that. We were severing the carotid
57 artery on one side, including the jugular vein on that
58 side, plus in some birds the spinal cord.
59
60 Q. Dr. Gregory says one of the carotid arteries in 33 per cent
