Day 067 - 15 Dec 94 - Page 17
1 records that I requested by, let us say, in the case of
2 Tysons, they are requested by law to provide records of how
3 many birds are condemned for whatever reason. So, I look,
4 I will look at those records to get an indication of the
5 welfare of the animals and I have in percentages how much
6 that are they losing, how much of the animals have been,
7 what percentages of the animals are being condemned.
8 I look at the conditions in which the animals arrive and,
9 ultimately, the product will tell you.
10
11 Q. So are you talking about at the processing plants here or
12 what?
13 A. Yes, I spend the majority of my time with the
14 processing plant. Our suppliers, we hold them accountable
15 for working with their suppliers.
16
17 Q. Do you make any audits of the farms?
18 A. We make visits of the farms. That would depend, for
19 instance, in here, Germany or France, we visit because our
20 suppliers are involved heavily with the farms. We visit
21 the plants, we see the conditions in which the animals are
22 raised, we will look at the conditions. We do not have a
23 formal form. We just look at the conditions at the
24 animals; how they are treated, how they are being raised,
25 what are they being fed?
26
27 Q. What about in the rest of the world, apart from the UK,
28 Germany and France?
29 A. It would vary depending upon the needs.
30
31 Q. The needs of who?
32 A. The needs that we have or the concerns that we have.
33 I could, for example, if we talk about Russia, McDonald's
34 Corporation or McDonald's US was not heavily involved in
35 Russia. Our experts were not heavily involved in Russia.
36 We relied on our experts in Germany to provide the
37 technical assistance. They visited the farms. They have
38 been working quite extensively with visiting farms from
39 every step in the process because it is needed. There is
40 definitely a need and an opportunity -----
41
42 Q. To get farms up and running so they can supply your
43 company?
44 A. To develop in the future, yes. I said it before, a lot
45 of their meat, when we first started, was imported.
46 Currently, a lot of our meat comes from the UK.
47
48 Q. Do you make any audits of farms in terms of welfare of the
49 animals, say, in the USA?
50 A. In the USA?
51
52 Q. Yes.
53 A. No, that would not be feasible for us. There is an
54 incredible amount of farms that will provide the beef. It
55 is not possible for a company, even our size, to visit
56 every single farm that can potentially supply the beef for
57 us. We leave that responsibility -- the US Department of
58 Agriculture has that responsibility. There are vets that
59 will visit those farms, and it is their responsibility of
60 the slaughter houses, of the deboning facilities, to look
