Day 093 - 28 Feb 95 - Page 57
1
2 Q. Shipping fever?
3 A. Not that I am aware of.
4
5 Q. Have you never heard of shipping fever?
6 A. No.
7
8 Q. You have not?
9 A. Sorry, during transportation. We were talking of the
10 feed lot and you changed that.
11
12 Q. What do you know about shipping fever?
13
14 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What is the answer? Are you aware of shipper
15 fever, whatever that may be?
16 A. I have heard about it, but I do not want to speculate
17 on that. I do not know what you mean by that.
18
19 MS. STEEL: Shipping fever is a commonly used term for a
20 particular type of disease in the USA, is it not?
21 A. No, I do not believe it is a disease.
22
23 Q. Or illness?
24 A. No, I do not believe that.
25
26 Q. Is it not that right stress in the feed lots -- well, as a
27 result of being in the feed lot makes the cattle
28 susceptible to painful and debilitating diseases?
29 A. You are absolutely wrong. The animals are in better --
30 you can go back to what we discussed before. If the
31 animals are in the open range it is a lot more difficult to
32 take care of them. The environment is more difficult on
33 them. They suffer from hunger. They suffer even more from
34 thirst. When they are in the lot there are cowboys that
35 deal with the horses around, looking for any signs of
36 disease. Their feeding is controlled. Their medication is
37 controlled if they need to. If an animal needs treatment
38 then it is separated into an individual pen. So, your
39 assumption is totally wrong.
40
41 Q. It was about whether the stress made them susceptible to
42 those diseases?
43 A. No. The stress is not, no, you are absolutely wrong.
44
45 Q. The abrupt change from a diet of grass to grain causes many
46 painful digestive problems. Would you agree with that?
47 A. Abrupt change, yes, that could happen. It would be
48 similar to a person having indigestion. That is what
49 really happens; they are uncomfortable. It produces gas
50 and they bloat, if it is not done properly. However, the
51 majority of the feed lots are well aware of that. It is a
52 well-documented research. In fact they are prepared for
53 that. When an animal comes into a feed lot he does not
54 start with grain, just with grain alone. It is provided
55 with a diet that is mostly grass and it progressively
56 increases with grain. The better feed lots who have
57 control over their supply of cattle, prepare the animals
58 before they even come to the feed lots. They bunk train
59 the animals. They start feeding a little bit of grain at a
60 time, so by the time animals get into the feed lot they do
