Day 289 - 29 Oct 96 - Page 09

     
     1        was on day 19, page 33, line 4 and I think the whole of
     2        that page is relevant.
     3
     4        So that basically there are two things that Sun Valley
     5        could be doing if it had an interest for the birds'
     6        welfare.  One is letting the birds that they are rearing
     7        have more freedom of movement and access to outdoor
     8        facilities, and the second is that they could stop using
     9        the breeds that are deliberately selected for fast weight
    10        gain.
    11
    12        On day 19, page 34, there is a description of the gait
    13        scores and the effect on birds.  The gait scores are
    14        obviously also given on page 4 of Dr. Gregory's statement.
    15        These are the gait scores for the birds tested at
    16        Sun Valley on 19th April 1993, a random sample of 152
    17        birds, 84 male and 68 female.
    18
    19        And Dr. Gregory said, referring to -- or he accepted,
    20        referring to a previous study which he had done, that the
         point at which birds' welfare is compromised unduly lies
    22        between a gait score of 2 and 3.  That was 19, 34, 34.  I
    23        will not read out all the results that I have typed up on
    24        the sheet, but if we make a note that there were 7 percent
    25        of birds with a gait score of 3 and 24 percent of birds
    26        with a gait score of 2 and there were only 31 percent of
    27        birds that had no leg abnormalities whatsoever.  So adding
    28        the 2 and 3 together, there were 31 percent of birds which
    29        were in the category where their welfare may be unduly
    30        compromised.  Obviously this was in a model, what we would
    31        consider a model shed, and translated across all the birds
    32        that are reared for the company, there must be hundreds of
    33        thousands whose welfare is unduly compromised every day.
    34
    35        In fact, I have miscalculated.  Mr. Morris points out that
    36        bearing in mind that there are 10 million birds at any one
    37        time being reared for Sun Valley, that means that around
    38        3 million birds at least at any one time are having their
    39        welfare compromised unduly because of leg problems.
    40
    MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Well, might be, because they might fall into
    42        the seven percent you said would, and because they are
    43        clearly at the top end of the bracket and some of the 24
    44        percent you say would be as well.
    45
    46   MS. STEEL:   Yes.  Obviously, yes.  This is in the first shed.
    47        (Pause).
    48
    49   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Yes.
    50 
    51   MS. STEEL:   Just to say that in the previous report Dr. Gregory 
    52        had recorded that a pig with a gait score of two would 
    53        require veterinary inspection, although not everybody would
    54        identify it as a bad welfare case.  It was with reference
    55        to that that the report said that if the approach was
    56        applied to poultry it was evident that the point at which a
    57        bird's welfare is compromised unduly lies between gait
    58        scores two and three.  So basically, you know, they should
    59        be getting attention even if they are gait score two.  In
    60        fact, realistically, that is not going to happen because of