Day 067 - 15 Dec 94 - Page 53
1 it is very difficult to measure that. If somebody when
2 they read that, and I had a lot of conversations, "What
3 does that mean?" it is a very subjective measure, and that
4 is the kind of thing we have to look for. That is why we
5 do not have every single detail in our specification,
6 because it was not possible to measure everything. What we
7 do care, what McDonald's care, is about the welfare of the
8 animal. That is what we look for. We do not look for 50
9 minutes time where it could be they are exposed to a
10 noise. We look at the entire life-span of the animal to
11 give us an indication of how well that animal is treated,
12 how well that animal is fed.
13
14 MR. MORRIS: All these questions, these were the only questions
15 you sent out, are they not? There was no second sheet?
16 A. That is correct.
17
18 Q. All these are about slaughter conditions, are they not?
19 They are not about rearing conditions?
20 A. That is correct. Let me add that there is a reason for
21 that. We have no control over what animals go into the
22 slaughterhouse. It is beyond our control. So, for that
23 reason we cannot have that questionnaire and go and ask
24 every farmer in the world that can potentially supply
25 McDonald's. It is beyond our control.
26
27 Q. You could have put a question in, could you not, saying,
28 "Does the slaughterhouse monitor its suppliers to check
29 the welfare conditions the animals"?
30 A. For the most parts around the world they do not. They
31 are not legally responsible for. It is entirely up to
32 them. There are some that will; some that will not. I do
33 not see the use of adding that into our questions. I want
34 the people to focus on some key questions.
35
36 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is up to the slaughterhouse, the abattoir
37 operator which cattle it buys, for instance, if we stay on
38 cattle for the moment, in order to slaughter them in its
39 abattoir or abattoirs in order to sell the meat to
40 processors?
41 A. That would depend. There are some slaughterhouses in
42 many places, many countries, which are operated by a
43 co-operative, by a group of farmers, and there are
44 agreements where they slaughter their animals. In
45 addition, they slaughter some other animals. So sometimes
46 they do have that control and sometimes they do not have
47 that control.
48
49 Q. It is just I was making the assumption, so correct if I am
50 wrong, that where you have a slaughterhouse which is
51 independent of the farm or farms, in other words, it is an
52 independent operation in its own right, it is presumably in
53 the abattoir's interest to buy animals which are in good
54 condition because the meat is going to be of a better
55 quality and they will get a better price for it. Is that a
56 correct assumption or not?
57 A. It is a correct assumption if we look in theory. In
58 practice, what happens is that the slaughterhouses need to
59 fulfil their needs; they need to run their operation.
60
