Day 289 - 29 Oct 96 - Page 06
1 with leg weaknesses would be reduced, which might lead to
2 the impression that the birds did not suffer such high
3 levels of leg weaknesses at other units.
4
5 Also, again we would point out that this was only one unit
6 out of, I think it is, 550 in total that are used to supply
7 Sun Valley, or are owned by Sun Valley.
8
9 The food and water system. He described the nipple
10 drinkers, which are a modern system, which he described on
11 day 18, page 8, line 26, was a system which Mr. Pattison
12 admitted is not in use at all Sun Valley units,
13 particularly not in the contract suppliers which, as I
14 said, comprise about 80 percent of the chickens used.
15 Additionally, it is a system which has really only come in
16 since, or after 1989/1990, the time of the alleged libel.
17 I did give the dates yesterday from Dr. Pattison's evidence
18 about when that came in.
19
20 Also, I think a general point about Dr. Gregory's
21 impression of Sun Valley. I mean, I am not going to say
22 that I think he was deliberately misled or anything,
23 I don't know how this came about, but his understanding of
24 Sun Valley Poultry was that they only supplied their own,
25 they only used their own birds, they did not buy in from
26 private farmers. And the reference for that is 19, 27, 6.
27 In our view, that misunderstanding may have encouraged him
28 to think that the overall standards at Sun Valley were
29 better than they are in reality.
30
31 If I can just make the point as well, in relation to his
32 inspection, when we were questioning him about what was
33 going on while he was observing the pigs being slaughtered,
34 he did say that it would be common practice when an
35 inspection was going to take place that there would be more
36 care taken and, you know, people would be more careful
37 about what they were doing, the practices that they were
38 carrying out, and obviously that could apply to the
39 breeding as well as the slaughter. I don't know how far in
40 advance -----
41
42 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You mean the rearing, do you?
43
44 MS. STEEL: The rearing, yes, sorry. But quite easily they
45 could have gone through the shed and cleared out the birds
46 that were particularly suffering before he came. I would
47 point out on this part that our expert was denied access to
48 the Sun Valley farm to independently check the conditions,
49 and obviously in our view that is basically because
50 Sun Valley and McDonald's know that the practices that are
51 going on at Sun Valley are inhumane and cruel and they do
52 not want people who are critical of the industry to be able
53 to -- well, they do not want them to see what is going on.
54 They do their utmost to keep people out, basically because
55 they are ashamed of what they are doing.
56
57 Just going on to lighting, which I went through yesterday,
58 and I did make reference to this point, but I have got the
59 reference typed up so I might as well refer to it. Dr.
60 Gregory said that lighting was kept low in broiler units
