Day 289 - 29 Oct 96 - Page 04

     
     1        will consume quite large amounts of environment/index.html">litter so they would be
     2        eating wood shavings.  So one assumes they are hungry.  We
     3        would say that that is obviously cruel, if the birds are so
     4        hungry that they are eating wood shavings, which would not
     5        be normally part of their diet.
     6
     7        Dr. Gregory agreed that the broiler industry is in a
     8        welfare dilemma, that either it restricts the food that the
     9        chickens eat, which could cause suffering through the
    10        hunger involved to the chicken, or else if they do not
    11        restrict the food then there are severe fertility problems
    12        and there can be mortality problems.  That is day 19, page
    13        15, line 28.
    14
    15        He said that basically this dilemma is due to the genetic
    16        selection for faster growth and heavier weight birds and it
    17        is affecting the appetite of the bird.  The reason that the
    18        industry was choosing to use those types of birds -- sorry,
    19        the reasons the broiler industry was using those types of
    20        birds was for economic reasons, obviously for quick
         profit.  That was on day 19, page 15, line 30.
    22
    23        I will not do the five freedom ones just yet.  I will come
    24        back to that.  If we go on to the sheet entitled
    25        'Broilers'.
    26
    27   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Yes, just pause a moment.  (Pause)  Yes?
    28
    29   MS. STEEL:   Just that this is in relation to what I was saying
    30        yesterday about how, in our view, the unit that Dr. Gregory
    31        saw was not typical of the way that chickens were reared
    32        for Sun Valley, and particularly would not be typical of
    33        how they were reared by Sun Valley during 1989/1990, the
    34        time of the alleged libel.
    35
    36        Dr. Gregory only saw one unit, and it was a Sun Valley
    37        unit.  That is on day 18, page 7.  All the comments which
    38        are in his statement, on page 4 of his statement, I think
    39        it is, yes, page 4 of his statement, bundle page 230 of
    40        yellow 9, about humidity, ventilation....  And I had better
         apologise for all the spelling mistakes.
    42
    43   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Do not worry about that.
    44
    45   MS. STEEL:   The food and drink systems are all measured
    46        relative to the industry standards and not on whether they
    47        are acceptable in and of themselves.  And obviously, as we
    48        know from the evidence of Dr. Pattison, not all the
    49        Sun Valley units were the same standard anyway.
    50 
    51        On day 18, page 7, line 29, Mr. Rampton asked Dr. Gregory: 
    52        "What in broad terms are the principal welfare conditions 
    53        that are necessary in the rearing of the birds in closed
    54        broiler units?"  Dr. Gregory replied that there has to be
    55        adequate lighting, adequate temperature control, adequate
    56        feed and water, maintenance of good environment/index.html">litter, detection of
    57        ill health, removal of dead birds, treatment of any ill
    58        birds, careful handling of the birds, routine inspection of
    59        the birds, and at the time of depopulation of the shed they
    60        have to be handled considerately and without causing