Day 089 - 15 Feb 95 - Page 45


     
     1        process of catching?
     2        A.  This can happen and the aim of the process is to
     3        minimise the number of injuries that do occur.
     4
     5   Q.   Is that aim motivated solely by a desire to avoid producing
     6        meat which cannot be used or which is of inferior quality?
     7        A.  The aim is to stop damage to the birds which is
     8        obviously going to cause pain and suffering and really the
     9        economic reasons are only secondary to that.
    10
    11   Q.   What are the kinds of injuries which (and I will come in a
    12        moment to ask you what their frequency is) a bird may
    13        suffer in the process of catching?
    14        A.  The first most obvious one is dislocation of the hip
    15        joint which may cause haemmorhage, that is loss of blood,
    16        into the joint and may cause mortality.  A broken leg is
    17        also something that can happen if chickens are mistreated.
    18        The other sort of injury is more of a crushing type of
    19        injury which can occur if the birds are put roughly into
    20        the crates or if their head is caught between the crate and
    21        the module when the drawers are being shut.
    22
    23   Q.   I was coming to the loading in a minute.  At the moment
    24        I am simply on the business of gathering up the birds for
    25        insertion into the crates.  Have you a rough idea of the
    26        incidence of injury inflicted during the process of
    27        catching?
    28        A.  The number of injuries, I am afraid, I cannot quote a
    29        number or a percentage.  It is a small number of each
    30        load.  You know, perhaps half a dozen in a 5,000 bird load,
    31        but I am really only guessing.
    32
    33   Q.   When the catcher does his task, how many birds will he be
    34        picking up at any one time?
    35        A.  It depends on the size of the bird and the size of the
    36        individual catching them but they would normally carry
    37        three birds in one hand and three in the other.
    38
    39   Q.   Is there a risk that they may injure their wings from
    40        flapping against the other birds that are held in the same
    41        hand?
    42        A.  That seems to be very, very unusual.
    43
    44   Q.   Has any other method of gathering the birds to transport
    45        them to the plant come to your attention?
    46        A.  There have been, there has been development work on
    47        what are called mechanical harvesters for broilers which is
    48        a machine which you can drive into the house and it
    49        actually has fingers on a drum which gathers birds up very
    50        gently and puts them on a conveyor belt, and the conveyor 
    51        belt then takes them to the crates.  This machinery has 
    52        been tried but it has been found very, very difficult to 
    53        get it to operate effectively in commercial conditions.
    54
    55   Q.   Have you considered it for use at Sun Valley?
    56        A.  We have looked at it but the problem is that the
    57        machine is very prone to breaking down.  It is more
    58        effective in more modern houses where there are fewer
    59        upright posts to get in the way of the machine; in older
    60        houses it can be very difficult to operate.

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