Day 217 - 09 02 96 - Page 54
DAY 217
1 of 45 to 55 per hour, that is quite a speed, is it not?
2 A. Well, yes.
3
4 Q. Demonstrate with your hand, if you can, how fast a carcass
5 is moving if it is one of, say, 50 that have been killed
6 during an hour?
7 A. Well, at this part of the slaughter house the carcasses
8 are not moving steadily. They are moving, they stop and
9 they move, so the slaughter line is not moving
10 continuously. So, usually -- because I had to cross the
11 line in that area every day because I went to talk to the
12 stunning man and tried to stop him from stunning more
13 animals. I could easily choose my time. I would look at
14 the line, wait until it stops, then cross the line and was
15 safe that way.
16
17 Q. That is what I think you and I had a short discussion about
18 last time you were here. Are you saying (and this is quite
19 important) that the trollies with the bins on them were
20 moved through into the hide skin room while the carcasses
21 were actually moving?
22 A. Yes, because the men could not possibly -- that stop is
23 not very long. You can -- a tiny little OVS like me can
24 easily get through that line, but a big carcass with one
25 man pulling it and another one pushing it could not do it.
26
27 Q. No, absolutely. And what is more, at that stage in the
28 operation the head is hanging on a hook beside the carcass,
29 is it not?
30 A. No, it is actually quite far away from the -- the head
31 was not really a concern. It was on the other side of the
32 trolley. The head line is not -- the head hangs on another
33 line that is not marked on this.
34
35 Q. It is parallel, is it not?
36 A. It is parallel but it is quite far from the other
37 slaughter.
38
39 Q. Tell me how far. Show us how far and then we will see if
40 we can get an estimate for the transcript; the distance
41 between the two parallel lines?
42 A. The head line is the -- yes, now I can tell you
43 actually, because the head line was -- the head and offal
44 line is marked here. It is behind the apron wash for
45 fronting platform and behind the head wash. Can you see
46 that line? It is the sheep line. There are two lines and
47 between those lines it says "sheep line" in quite a ------
48
49 Q. I see "sheep line".
50
51 MR. MORRIS: It says "head offal line"?
52 A. Heads and offal line is the one that .....
53
54 Q. Underneath the "head wash", it says "head offal rail".
55
56 MR. RAMPTON: So what they have to do, they have to negotiate,
57 and we are only talking about the forefeet bin, are we not,
58 because the hind feet bin is already the right side of the
59 line?
60 A. That is right, yes.
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