Day 066 - 14 Dec 94 - Page 51
1 substance like our nails.
2
3 Q. Does it have a name?
4 A. Carotene.
5
6 Q. While I am on it, so that we do not have to come back to
7 it, do chickens in the United States and elsewhere go
8 through the process of debeaking?
9 A. Yes, they do sometimes.
10
11 Q. For what purpose? What is the reason for it?
12 A. For the purpose so they will not fight or damage or
13 injure some of the other chickens while they are growing.
14
15 Q. Is the whole beak removed or just a part of it?
16 A. No, just the tip.
17
18 Q. What is the beak of a chicken made of?
19 A. The same protein.
20
21 Q. Do these horns and beaks have any nerve endings in them?
22 A. No, they do not.
23
24 Q. Can we go back to the plan? We see a stage at which the
25 skin is taken off the animal, the "dehiding" stage?
26 A. Yes.
27
28 Q. Opposite that there is an "apron wash" and then another
29 "hand wash" which are marked as being "sterile" or
30 "sterilization". Before that on the bottom side of the
31 line to the left of the fronting platform, there is a box
32 with some diagonals -- not diagonals but oblique lines in
33 it -- called "head wash". Do you know what that is for?
34 A. Yes. When -- let us see, I do not see the processor.
35 There is a part of the process where they separate the
36 head.
37
38 Q. Yes. That is earlier up?
39 A. And they go through a shower just to clean it.
40
41 Q. Then there is a stage after the dehiding which is called
42 "brisket"; what is that for?
43 A. Brisket is part of -- this is this part of the animal
44 and I wish it had -- let me just see -- oh, yes, brisket is
45 part of the animal that includes the forequarter and it is
46 specifically the breast area of the animal and it goes a
47 little bit back to the flank of the animal.
48
49 Q. What are they doing here?
50 A. They just cut it.
51
52 Q. Then we see the next stage is gut removal, and there is a
53 chute which takes the gut away to a gut room which appears
54 to be beside the fat room and separate from the skin room.
55 Is there any necessity to keep all these substances
56 separate from each other?
57 A. Yes, most of the contamination that comes in with the
58 animal is in the digestive track as well as the hide.
59 There is an effort to try keep them separate.
60
