Day 098 - 07 Mar 95 - Page 03

     
     1        not you personally but your company is responsible, for
     2        animal welfare of cattle as from when they arrive?
     3        A.  Yes.
     4
     5   Q.   So your company does not have any specifications on
     6        suppliers specifically to do with animal welfare?
     7        A.  We are working on that at the moment in we are trying
     8        to build what we call a Farm Assurance Scheme so that farms
     9        do meet certain criteria except the ones, the specification
    10        required by the official bodies that are at the plant.
    11
    12   Q.   But at the moment there are no written specifications to
    13        the farmers, that is someone else's responsibility?
    14        A.  There are written specifications but not all farmers
    15        that supply us have got them.
    16
    17   Q.   While we are on that subject -----
    18
    19   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Would it be fair to say that if one went back
    20        about five or six years, which is about the middle of your
         time with Midland Meat Packers, is it not, that your check
    22        on how well or otherwise cattle have been treated before
    23        they came into your lairages was the condition of the
    24        cattle itself?
    25        A.  Which would have been carried out by the official
    26        veterinary surgeon on site, yes.  I have very little myself
    27        to do with animal welfare five or six years ago.
    28
    29   Q.   No, but do you know of any check on how the cattle are
    30        reared or treated before that?
    31        A.  I do not, no.  It is outside my sphere of
    32        responsibility.
    33
    34   MR. MORRIS:  But you are just beginning to develop some written
    35        policy now for suppliers?
    36        A.  Yes, we have been developing it for some time now, yes.
    37
    38   Q.   Do you take cattle from all over the country?
    39        A.  Yes, we do.
    40
    Q.   Is that Wales, Ireland -- sorry, Wales, Scotland and
    42        England?
    43        A.  Yes, not Ireland.
    44
    45   Q.   Not Ireland.  Do you take any at all from abroad?
    46        A.  No.
    47
    48   Q.   Do you favour some suppliers because of the size of the
    49        animal, or whatever, or do you take from any suppliers?
    50        A.  When the buyers buy the cattle they buy them to a 
    51        specification to meet, you know, the end product needs. 
    52 
    53   Q.   But in terms of size, what do you look for -- your buyers,
    54        sorry?
    55        A.  It just varies greatly depending on the product that we
    56        are looking at putting the meat into at the end.
    57
    58   Q.   We are just trying to track a document down.
    59
    60   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Can you move on while Ms. Steel looks for it