Day 290 - 30 Oct 96 - Page 23


     
     1        the actual reporting of the physical conditions, I am not
     2        challenging what he says, although obviously he would be
     3        trying to portray it in the best possible light.  But in
     4        term of the effects of the conditions, then obviously we
     5        are challenging his evidence.
     6
     7   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, I understand that.  Right.  Anyway, you
     8        got to farrowing indoors.
     9
    10   MS. STEEL:   Yes.  He said that a sow would have roughly 1.2 or
    11        1.3 square metres of lying area, and then they have the
    12        area where they can dung and roam in addition to that.
    13        Presumably they are roaming through the dung.  That was on
    14        day 88, page 55, line 17.
    15
    16        He said that two days before they are expected to give
    17        birth they get moving to the farrowing room.  That was day
    18        88, page 55, line 23.
    19
    20        And I asked him whether or not it was possible for the pig
    21        to turn around in the farrowing crate because there is --
    22        he admitted that in the farrowing room the pigs were put in
    23        farrowing crates.  And he said it is impossible for the pig
    24        to turn around in a farrowing crate, which obviously we
    25        consider to be extremely cruel.  But he claimed that they
    26        took their pigs out once a day and let them walk up and
    27        down, although basically that appears to be just for the
    28        purposes of cleaning out their crates and making a brief
    29        inspection of the condition of the pig, because they were
    30        only out for, he said, a few minutes, five minutes or ten
    31        minutes.  Whatever it is, even if it was ten minutes, it is
    32        still not very long.  It still means that the sow is
    33        confined in a tiny crate for 23 hours and 50 minutes every
    34        day.  And the reference for that is day 88, page 55, line
    35        56.
    36
    37        He said that the sows spend three and a half to four weeks
    38        in the crate, about twice a year.  That was day 88, page
    39        56, line 2.  And that the crates are about half to three
    40        quarters of a meter longer than the pig.  That was day 88,
    41        page 56, line 47.  So basically, for almost four weeks
    42        twice a year, 23 hours and 50 minutes every day, the sows
    43        are confined in an area where they cannot turn around and
    44        where they cannot take more than one or two steps backwards
    45        or forwards, and we consider that that is grossly
    46        inhumane.
    47
    48        If we just contrast that with the outdoor pigs, where he
    49        said that the outdoor pigs have the freedom to choose the
    50        arc of their choice and then have the freedom to come in 
    51        and out as they choose.  That was on day 88, page 56, line 
    52        57. 
    53
    54   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Yes.
    55
    56   MS. STEEL:   He said that ten years ago most of the farms
    57        supplying Bowes, the pigs would have been inside.  That was
    58        day 88, page 57, line 48.  He said that - this is the point
    59        I was on earlier - on the company's farms all the pigs went
    60        inside in the '70s and they started coming back out in the

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