Day 077 - 25 Jan 95 - Page 26

     
     1        A.  No, sir.
     2
     3   Q.   -- over, say, the last 30 years?
     4        A.  No, they are still working off 12 volt batteries.
     5        There are some working off main supplies through a
     6        transformer which brings them down to 12 volts.
     7
     8   Q.   So if it happened to me as long as 20 or 30 years ago, it
     9        would be much the same today?
    10        A.  Very much the same, sir, and a goad is not as painful
    11        as that.
    12
    13   MR. RAMPTON:  Within the confines of a slaughterhouse of which
    14        you tell us you have seen perhaps more now than you would
    15        have wished, what sort of things are there potentially in a
    16        slaughterhouse which, first of all, could cause animals
    17        undue alarm?
    18        A.  Noise.
    19
    20   Q.   Noise.  In your experience, are both pigs and cattle
         sociable animals?
    22        A.  Very much so -- pigs especially.
    23
    24   Q.   Again I think we have a provision in this country that
    25        cattle must be stunned singularly?
    26        A.  Yes.
    27
    28   Q.   What is your view about that?
    29        A.  I think it would be better if they were stunned in
    30        groups because they are a natural herd animal, and if you
    31        divide them steers and heifers and cows, cows are handled
    32        twice a day -----
    33
    34   Q.   You mean on the farm?
    35        A.  On a farm.  Cows have no fear at all of being moved.
    36        They have no fear of humans.  Sometimes in steers and
    37        heifers which have been out in the paddocks all the time
    38        and only know the stockmen, and they do know the stockmen
    39         -- you or I going to a strange herd, we are strangers to
    40        them -- but if they are together they are much more
         contented; they are herd animals.
    42
    43   Q.   Pigs are, I believe, quite often stunned in groups of two
    44        or more, are they not?
    45        A.  Yes, with the tongues.
    46
    47   Q.   To your mind, is that an advantage or a disadvantage from
    48        the point of view of animal welfare?
    49        A.  It is an advantage.
    50 
    51   Q.   Can I ask you now, please, to retrieve from the shelves a 
    52        pink volume entitled Rearing and Slaughter and numbered 
    53        IX?   Can you keep that one by because we will probably
    54        have to come back to it?
    55        A.  Did you say No. 9, sir?
    56
    57   Q.   Yes, it has "Rearing and Slaughter" on it.  First of all,
    58        please turn to tab 1 of that file.  I think it is a
    59        four-page document.  Just glance at its former tab 1, you
    60        will see it should have a series of typed written pages,