Day 289 - 29 Oct 96 - Page 10

     
     1        the massive numbers involved, and the lack of people that
     2        there are to look after them means that their welfare is
     3        being compromised.
     4
     5        Then in the second check -- I am not sure whether or not
     6        this is mentioned.  I am not sure this is mentioned in Dr.
     7        Gregory's report, but it was appended -----
     8
     9   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  We had some sheets, did we not, which came in
    10        later with just what the examinations revealed?
    11
    12   MS. STEEL:   Yes.  I mean, it is the addendum to the report by
    13        Dr. Gregory, which is at the back of his statement, which
    14        says the leg pathology of 25 birds from McDonald's supplier
    15        sampled at random has been examined at Langford.  The
    16        presence of abnormalities was 44 percent.  Then we had all
    17        the sheets that recorded the results of the pathology.  The
    18        figures that I have set out here on the sheet that I typed
    19        up are from actually what Mr. Rampton calculated, totting
    20        up the scores on the sheets that we were given.  He said
         there were 32 birds rather than the 25 that Dr. Gregory had
    22        mentioned in the addendum.  12.5 percent of those birds had
    23        a gait score of three, so that is 12.5 percent of birds
    24        whose welfare was definitely unduly compromised.  On top of
    25        that there were more than 40 percent of birds with a gait
    26        score of two whose welfare may have been unduly
    27        compromised.  We would say it was definitely being
    28        compromised to some extent.
    29
    30        So, in total there would be approximately 53 percent of
    31        birds that were in a category where their welfare may be
    32        unduly, or definitely was being unduly, compromised.  That
    33        was on day 20, page 79, line 18.  Well, it is around
    34        there.  I mean, the whole part goes before and after.
    35
    36        Just also that in that survey only 25 percent of the birds
    37        had no leg abnormalities whatsoever.  We would say that
    38        these are horrendous levels of birds with leg
    39        abnormalities, and it is quite clear that no concern is
    40        being given to the birds' welfare.  We are not talking
         about, you know, one or two percent of birds that you might
    42        say are inevitably going to suffer from disease, or
    43        whatever.  We are talking about over 53 percent of birds,
    44        or approximately 53 percent of birds, being in a category
    45        where their welfare may be unduly compromised.  That is
    46        unduly, let alone compromised full stop.
    47
    48        I think it was suggested on behalf of the Plaintiffs that
    49        there was not a lot they could do about it and, you know,
    50        Sun Valley were trying to do the best they could.  We say 
    51        that that is just a complete load of rubbish, that it is 
    52        obvious that birds are being selected solely on how fast 
    53        they can make profits for Sun Valley and McDonald's.
    54
    55        Dr. Gregory said on day 18, page 15, line 27, that the
    56        findings -- I think this was another study -- are showing
    57        that "the likely avenue for success is to improve the
    58        criteria they are using when they select the birds.  They
    59        are selected for growth rate, they are not selecting
    60        adequate criteria in terms of walking ability.  That is one