Day 289 - 29 Oct 96 - Page 05

     
     1        trauma, and that was when they were going to be transported
     2        to the slaughter house.
     3
     4        Mr. Rampton then asked about whether or not Sun Valley
     5        matched these criteria.  Rather than answering directly,
     6        Dr. Gregory asked if he could answer by comparing
     7        Sun Valley to other units.  He then said that he thought it
     8        was a higher standard than average.  That was on day 18,
     9        page 8, line 10.
    10
    11        Obviously, I would reiterate the points about how this
    12        particular unit appears to have been a higher standard than
    13        the other units owned by Sun Valley, and also the 80
    14        percent of other units which are run by contract
    15        suppliers.  Also, we would submit that even if it was true
    16        that they were a higher standard than average, it would be
    17        completely irrelevant, because the fact sheet does not
    18        allege that McDonald's are worse than anybody else, it
    19        refers to the industry standard, criticising the industry
    20        standard and stating that McDonald's are to blame for their
         share.
    22
    23        In the end, Dr. Gregory did not actually answer the
    24        question of how Sun Valley matched the criteria for the
    25        birds' welfare, although we did get some of that out of him
    26        later on when we were cross-examining him and he did make
    27        some criticisms.  The reasons that he gave for why he
    28        considered that Sun Valley Poultry were better than
    29        average, this is not very well expressed but we would say
    30        that later on all those reasons were revealed not to be
    31        typical of Sun Valley or the normal practice at Sun Valley
    32        when Mark Pattison was giving evidence.  And it was all
    33        just based on the one shed that he saw.  At the particular
    34        time that he saw it, because, as we know, the lux was not
    35        typical even for that shed.  The lighting levels, sorry.
    36
    37        The reasons that he gave for why he considered Sun Valley
    38        Poultry to be of a higher standard than average were: "It
    39        had higher lighting levels than is usually encountered, at
    40        least that I have observed.  Secondly the standard of
         environment/index.html">litter management, I thought, was good.  Thirdly, the
    42        prevalence of leg weakness was low by comparison with other
    43        flocks that I observed."  That was 18, 8, 11.
    44
    45        He stated that in the unit that he visited the lighting
    46        level was 75 to 80 lux.  I mentioned that yesterday.  That
    47        is in his statement.
    48
    49        At the top, in paragraph 1 on page 5 of his statement, he
    50        said that for broiler units 80 lux is quite bright and it 
    51        is very bright relative to other units.  As I said 
    52        yesterday, as we later heard from Mark Pattison, in fact 
    53        the lighting level at which Dr. Gregory observed the unit
    54        was much higher than that typically used by the company.
    55
    56        In relation to the prevalence of leg weaknesses being low
    57        by comparison with other flocks that have been observed, we
    58        did actually hear from Mark Pattison that birds with leg
    59        problems would be culled out, birds with gait scores of 4
    60        or 5, and that therefore the numbers still in the sheds