Day 067 - 15 Dec 94 - Page 47
1
2 Q. Yes. Would you accept that?
3 A. Yes, I would accept that.
4
5 Q. So you have read Dr. Gregory's evidence about Sun Valley?
6 A. Yes, I did.
7
8 Q. And the other suppliers. Would you say that British
9 conditions are better than most countries and other
10 countries are, you know, beginning to improve their
11 conditions?
12 A. Are you speaking about Sun Valley and the chicken
13 operation?
14
15 Q. I am talking in general about conditions. Obviously, we
16 have got evidence that we do not have to go into detail
17 because your company had a witness, Mr. Gregory, who has
18 given the details about the conditions. What I am saying
19 is are the conditions in Britain considered to be better
20 than most other countries of McDonald's suppliers in most
21 other countries?
22 A. The conditions in relation to how well the animals are
23 being treated?
24
25 Q. Yes, just on animal welfare.
26 A. Or how healthy are the animals?
27
28 Q. Yes.
29 A. I would say, and it has been my experience from
30 visiting the chicken houses and slaughterhouses for
31 chickens around the world, that you could find many plants
32 that are very similar, that will be very similar to Sun
33 Valley's for a number of reasons. The poultry industry
34 around the world shares a lot of the information and they
35 are the leading nature of all kinds of technology. There
36 are some areas which are better, yes, but you would expect
37 that kind of variation around the world. There are no
38 plants that are alike around the world. It is inherent in
39 the process that nobody can duplicate the same conditions
40 in every country under every environment.
41
42 Q. I am just trying to see whether the operations in this
43 country are considered, in terms of animal welfare, a model
44 for others to catch up with and as a guideline to what to
45 achieve?
46 A. Yes, there are some good things they are doing. They
47 spend some resources in terms of research testing to move
48 forward. So, yes, there are some things they do better
49 than some suppliers.
50
51 Q. So in this country, if people were concerned about animal
52 welfare considerations from other countries, whether it is
53 Russia or South America or wherever, would Britain be a
54 place to come, you said suppliers are invited to check out
55 other model suppliers to see the kinds of conditions which
56 the company likes to encourage, would Britain be a
57 particularly useful country for animal welfare?
58 A. Yes, Britain could be considered as a world class as
59 well as other countries, just like Australia or the US.
60 There are a number of countries that would be models, as
