Day 061 - 05 Dec 94 - Page 47
1
2 MS. STEEL: You have "clean" and you have "hygienic" in there.
3 If you are using "clean" in the context of not much risk of
4 disease, what is the point of the "hygienic"?
5 A. I think "hygienic" can also refer to the environment in
6 which, in this case we are talking about chickens, in which
7 case the chickens are reared. But we know the environment
8 is free of air-borne diseases and that is really what I am
9 referring to there.
10
11 Q. When ordinary people read that sentence: "McDonald's
12 insists that animals using its products are reared in a
13 clean etc. environment", you want people to think, do you
14 not, that they are cleaned out on a regular basis and it is
15 all nice and cosy and a lovely place for them to live?
16 A. I honestly can say it never entered my head that that
17 was the situation.
18
19 Q. So why do you say you put "clean" in there? That was in
20 terms of disease, was it?
21 A. In terms of disease, yes.
22
23 Q. Right. When you say "safe", what does that mean? Is that
24 safe from predators or safe from something else?
25 A. By and large we are referring to predators.
26
27 Q. But, of course, they are going to get killed at the end
28 anyway, are they not?
29 A. Not in quite such a brutal fashion. Being half eaten
30 alive can be quite different to being stunned and having
31 your throat cut.
32
33 Q. Or from being pecked to death by another chicken in the
34 same cage as you?
35 A. Or in the farmyard, for that matter.
36
37 Q. Are you aware of problems of chickens in battery cages
38 attacking the other chickens in the cages because of the
39 confined spaces they are kept in?
40 A. I am not aware of that specific problem.
41
42 Q. You are not?
43 A. Not specifically, no.
44
45 Q. Do you know whether oasters debeak the chickens they keep
46 in their battery cages?
47 A. I do not know.
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49 Q. You do not know. That is not something you have taken the
50 trouble to find out?
51 A. No.
52
53 Q. Even though that is practice that is considered to be cruel
54 by a great many people?
55 A. Debeaking?
56
57 Q. Yes.
58 A. I have answered you, I do not know.
59
60 Q. It is not something that McDonald's thought was important
