Day 109 - 28 Mar 95 - Page 02
1 Tuesday, 28th March 1995
2
3 MRS. CATHERINE DRUCE, recalled
4 Examined by the Defendants, continued
5
6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I forgot to mention earlier that on rereading
7 Mr. Long's statement, I think the second page of my copy
8 may be missing. Do not bother about it now, but if before
9 the end of the week you could give me a photocopy of the
10 complete statement, I will substitute it in the bundle.
11 Yes?
12
13 MS. STEEL: Dr. Pattison made reference to having seen birds
14 standing on the back of other birds in order to reach the
15 drinkers. Do you have any comment on that?
16 A. Well, I would think it would show that the necessary
17 culling or, at least, taking away of unfit birds, had not
18 been carried out because a bird that was so small that it
19 had to climb on another bird's back would be a runt of some
20 kind and should have been removed.
21
22 Q. If it did not, would that have any welfare implications?
23 A. If it could not perform this without climbing on
24 another bird's back it might well die from dehydration.
25
26 Q. Right. Would that be something that would take some time
27 to happen, would the death be immediate?
28 A. I would think it would take two or three days. It
29 would be a combination of starvation as well because water
30 is vital for -- a bird cannot just eat dry food, it has to
31 have the water. So it would be starvation and dehydration
32 which, I do not know, I think it would take two days
33 perhaps, maybe longer.
34
35 Q. During that time is it likely that the bird would be
36 suffering?
37 A. Yes, I am sure it would be suffering, particularly from
38 thirst.
39
40 Q. The labour allocation, I do not know, I am not sure if you
41 were here on the day that Dr. Pattison was talking about
42 labour allocation, but the labour allocation in the Farm
43 Animal Welfare Council Report is one stockperson per 80,000
44 birds; is that something that you feel is adequate?
45 A. Well, no, I think the whole inspection and process of
46 looking after individual birds' welfare is completely
47 impossible within the broiler system.
48
49 Q. Do you remember what Dr. Pattison said? Do you think that
50 would apply to Sun Valley as well?
51 A. I think he said that the stockperson walked the shed
52 three times a day. Would this be one person?
53
54 Q. I am sorry, I am not sure -----
55
56 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, I think it was one person at a time did
57 the walk?
58 A. Yes.
59
60 MS. STEEL: How long do you think that one person would need to
