Day 290 - 30 Oct 96 - Page 16
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, very well.
2
3 MR. MORRIS: Just bearing in mind the submissions that we have
4 heard from Ms. Steel. You asked us to identify the areas
5 of cruelty where we say there was cruelty. So I have just
6 identified regarding chickens, just in a run through, the
7 areas of cruelty and whether they are deliberately cruel or
8 whether they can be said to be deliberate or just
9 inevitable as regards the whole production system for
10 profit, or even just for mass production of food.
11
12 The gassing of chicks is deliberate cruelty, we would say.
13 The denial of being brought up by their mothers for the
14 chicks, i.e. a denial of siblings, is deliberate cruelty,
15 I would say. When I say 'deliberate', I mean it is not
16 something that is just inevitable or routine, it is
17 something that is a positive policy that this should be
18 done. Regarding the gassing of chickens, it is the death,
19 the killing of those chicks, that is the deliberate
20 cruelty, not the method that is used. That is another
21 question about the method.
22
23 The confinement of birds, again, in broiler sheds, is a
24 deliberate cruelty. The lack of open air and sunshine,
25 lack of mobility, especially the lack of mobility, again is
26 a deliberate cruelty, because increased mobility is less
27 weight, would be smaller chickens, and what relates to that
28 relates to the unnaturally low lighting levels, would be
29 deliberate cruelty to prevent mobility.
30
31 The next little bit out of sequence is the decision to kill
32 the birds at seven weeks rather than live their natural
33 life, i.e. the, what you might call, murder of the chickens
34 is deliberate cruelty. However, that act takes place.
35
36 MS. STEEL: Can I just say that I think that deliberate cruelty
37 is perhaps... I am not sure whether it is the best way of
38 expressing it, the point we are trying to get over is not
39 that it is a deliberate intention to cause cruelty but that
40 the acts are deliberate and that they are cruel.
41
42 MR. MORRIS: Yes, that is a better way of expressing it. And
43 that McDonald's knows that they are cruel. Virtually all
44 of these offend the five minimum freedoms which McDonald's
45 accept as the basis for judging cruelty.
46
47 The lack of natural behaviour in general is deliberate and
48 is cruel, the prevention of natural behaviour patterns.
49 The over-feeding in broiler sheds and the under-feeding for
50 rearers is cruel and it is deliberate. The fact that some
51 birds die if they cannot reach the water, they are not
52 strong enough or large enough to reach the water, those
53 kind of things, I would not say that was deliberate but
54 that is cruel. It may be deliberate because it may be they
55 want the smaller birds to die off.
56
57 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Well, that is just consequence, is it not,
58 that is just a consequence of the planned system?
59
60 MR. MORRIS: Yes. So that is an inevitable consequence of the,
