Day 291 - 31 Oct 96 - Page 15
1 any head restraints, but there was the small structure.
2 But, anyway, that is just comment one way or the other.
3
4 MS. STEEL: Well, I mean -----
5
6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: This supports your point, does it not?
7
8 MS. STEEL: I do not know. It was four years ago that
9 Mr. Chambers said they were brought in.
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11 MR. JUSTICE BELL: May be he is right, may be he is wrong.
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13 MS. STEEL: Right.
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15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I don't know, it is just another matter of
16 detail in this case.
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18 MS. STEEL: Yes. On day 97, page 84, line 31 Mr. Chambers was
19 asked, "What changes, improvements, if any, have been made
20 in the last four or five years so far as animal welfare is
21 concerned?" Mr. Chambers said, "Quite a considerable
22 number of changes to the layout of our lairage. In fact,
23 we are just about to start a new project with a new
24 lairage, a larger lairage, where, obviously, a lot of the
25 animal welfare considerations have been taken into account
26 with the design of it." That was doing away with the
27 ramps, and so on. I am not sure if that was all the
28 improvements that had been made in terms of animal welfare
29 in the last four or five years.
30
31 The other thing is that on day 97, page 45, line 47
32 Mr. Chambers said that Midland Meat certainly did care
33 about the animals' welfare for commercial reasons as much
34 as anything else, and we say that basically they will take
35 note of the welfare if it is in their interests to but if
36 it is going to get in the way to any great extent then the
37 welfare is going to come a poor second to the company's
38 profits.
39
40 Going on to the evidence of Dr. Gregory about cattle;
41 Mr. Gregory was asked whether or not he had visited any of
42 the farms that supply, or where the cattle originate from
43 that are used by McDonald's. This was on day 18, page 72.
44 He said, "No, I think you will find, and I am open to
45 correction on this, that since they are mainly supplying
46 cow beef to McKeys a lot of those animals will be bought
47 through the auction market. That being the case, it would
48 be quite difficult to source those cows in terms of their
49 farm of origin." He got that information from the buyer
50 for McKeys.
51
52 He was asked whether or not there was a particular age
53 range in terms of the cows. He said it would be unlikely,
54 "You tend to get what you can buy, so they would be cull
55 cows, ones which the farmer no longer wants to keep, that
56 could be because they have a disorder. It could be that
57 they have outlasted what he considers to be their
58 productive life. It might be because they are barren, they
59 are not breeding properly. So, for whatever reason, he
60 decides to dispose of them, they would be made available.
