Day 291 - 31 Oct 96 - Page 09

     
     1        page 15.  Mr. Morris read from part of the report.  It
     2        says:  "At no stage can they see or have contact with their
     3        fellow creatures.  In our view, such handling arrangements
     4        prior to stunning often creates a high level of stress,
     5        even terror, for the animals."  Mr. Long said: "I would
     6        agree with that, they are certainly frightened to the point
     7        of going to terror.  It is a completely alien
     8        environment."
     9
    10        On the same page, right at the bottom of the page, Mr. Long
    11        was asked:  "Do cattle always express the fear that they
    12        are feeling?"  Mr. Long said:  "Animal behaviourists would
    13        argue there are differences according to the animal's
    14        evolution.  Pigs are more like human beings, that if they
    15        are stressed they will cry out and make a noise and a
    16        fuss.  Cattle and other animals of that type are herd
    17        animals.  Their attitude is that they do not want to show
    18        that they are disabled because they will be picked off by
    19        their predators.  So they tend to go dull, they tend to be
    20        less demonstrative if they are suffering."
    21
    22        On page 22 of the same 1984 report, it referred to
    23        paragraph 202:  "Very often and in the current economic
    24        climate, perhaps understandably, too much consideration is
    25        being given to through-put levels with disregard for the
    26        welfare of the animal."
    27
    28        Mr. Morris asked Mr. Long for his view on that.  Mr. Long
    29        said:  "Generally, experiments that have been done convince
    30        me that as you increase the through-put the level of stress
    31        increased, down to the noise and other adverse factors."
    32        He said:  "Experiments have been done that I know of that
    33        indicate that the level of stress hormones goes up more in
    34        big slaughter houses with vast through-put."
    35
    36        I do not know whether I have got this figure anywhere  else
    37         - I just happened to notice it on page 27 - that Mr. Long
    38        said that the -----
    39
    40   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Page?
    41
    42   MS. STEEL:   27.  That the annual slaughter rate in the UK of
    43        pigs is about 16 million, and that was on the point about
    44        whilst percentages might sound small, the number of animals
    45        that are affected is quite large.
    46
    47        Moving on to weaning, on page 30, Mr. Long went into the
    48        welfare implications of weaning the pigs at 21 or 24 days,
    49        and he said that if you take the piglets first they would
    50        obviously benefit like any young in having more maternal 
    51        care. 
    52 
    53        Then at the bottom of the page, he said that as far as the
    54        sow is concerned, the strain of over-production is
    55        intensified by the system of being mated just a few days
    56        after the weaning and then being pregnant again, and
    57        basically the continuous cycle of pregnancy and lactation.
    58        He said:  "So she does not get a rest, and if she does not
    59        get a rest, in the intensive conditions, you are inviting
    60        all sorts of welfare problems and diseases."