Day 096 - 03 Mar 95 - Page 16
1 please.
2
3 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do you know what the stocking densities are,
4 the regulations say?
5 A. It varies according to the size of the pig, and if you
6 look in the Freedom Food book it is written there. I would
7 say, if I remember correctly, for a finished pig of 90
8 kilograms, it is 1.2 square metres. I believe that I
9 quoted you MAFF figures. Just looking in here, the Freedom
10 Food is 1.3, but that is -- sorry, here we are.
11
12 Q. What page is that on, sorry?
13 A. If you look on page 5 of the Welfare Provision, Freedom
14 Food, it is all there. You have a lying area and you have
15 a total area. On your large pig, 250 kilograms -- I said
16 there is a variation -- and it is then 1.3 to 1.5.
17
18 Q. But your pigs are 90 kilograms so that would be
19 between -----
20 A. No, no, we have pigs of all weights, from being born at
21 this very minute right through -----
22
23 MR. JUSTICE BELL: In any event, we can see them there.
24 A. Yes.
25
26 MS. STEEL: The figures you have given before, you said they go
27 to slaughter at 90 kilogrammes?
28 A. Yes, approximately.
29
30 Q. So it would actually be somewhere between the lying area of
31 .45 and .50?
32 A. Yes.
33
34 Q. Do you know whether all your suppliers use stocking
35 densities of that or less than that?
36 A. That would be a -- I would say -----
37
38 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Hold on, by "less than"?
39 A. Yes, that is what I was -- I am not answering to
40 that ----
41
42 Q. What do you mean? You said, " .45, .5 or less than that".
43
44 MS. STEEL: I meant less in terms of less pigs, sorry.
45
46 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, I thought you did.
47
48 THE WITNESS: Yes, all our surprise and our own farmers, we have
49 to concur to that. You know, we have regular vetting
50 inspection. We have regular RSPCA inspections. You have
51 to comply.
52
53 Q. The vets would not do anything about it, would they?
54 A. I do not know of a much more caring person than a vet.
55
56 Q. But these are not legally enforceable so they would not
57 have any power to take any action over that unless the pigs
58 were diseased or something like that?
59 A. On the question of the Freedom Food system, I do not
60 think you are quite correct there, because we have become
