Day 115 - 06 Apr 95 - Page 06

     
     1        A.  Yes, there are, obviously, some common interests; if
     2        the flesh is bruised by particularly bad handling then, of
     3        course, it should be cut off and that would be a loss.
     4
     5   Q.   So, sorry?
     6        A.  That is some protection, unfortunately, for the pig.
     7        It is a bit strange to call, to talk about "freedom" when
     8        the animal is really going to be massacred but at least
     9        some changes have been made.
    10
    11        I must emphasise that much of that drive for improvement
    12        has come from the animal welfare movement since, well,
    13        going back to the certainly early 1980s and earlier than
    14        that.
    15
    16   Q.   What evidence do you have, Dr. Long, that what I would call
    17        beneficial conditions which exist at G.D. Bowes & Sons are
    18        the consequence of pressure from animal welfarists?
    19        A.  Particularly, I think, the farm animal welfare reports
    20        which concern red meat slaughterhouses in this instance.
         There have been other publications.  There was one here,
    22        the University Federation of Animal Welfare, a conference,
    23        I think that was in the 1980s, on humane slaughter of
    24        animals for food, and -----
    25
    26   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I am going to stop you there because the
    27        question is not whether animal welfarists have been drawing
    28        attention to the situation and how they suggest it could be
    29        improved, but what evidence you have that the conditions
    30        which exist at G.D. Bowes & Sons are the consequence of
    31        pressure from animal welfarists as opposed, for example, to
    32        the possibility that the Bowes family may be considerate
    33        animal husbanders?
    34        A.  I think one has only to look, if you like, at the
    35        television coverage of these issues as an indication, the
    36        fact that the press has responded and exposed this.  It is
    37        almost every day now one reads of some animal welfare
    38        matter and, certainly, animal welfare matters that concern
    39        pigs as well as cattle.
    40
         Also, I might say that in the supermarkets in the last five
    42        or six years, one has been seeing more effort made to
    43        persuade the customer that the pigs are free range,
    44        so-called free range, that they are happy, that the idea to
    45        pass this off as happy meat, really, as the trade calls it.
    46
    47   MR. RAMPTON:  You noticed, did you, that the pigs are, so far as
    48        possible, kept in peer groups throughout their lives from
    49        cradle to grave, did you not?
    50        A.  Yes. 
    51 
    52   Q.   That is a benefit for the pig, is it not? 
    53        A.  That is certainly an aspect of welfare and husbandry,
    54        yes, good practice.
    55
    56   Q.   You noticed that the sows were not mixed; that sisters were
    57        kept together but that the rest of the sows were separated
    58        from each other as to reduce the incidence of fighting, you
    59        noticed that?
    60        A.  Yes, I did notice that.