Day 290 - 30 Oct 96 - Page 02
1 Wednesday, 30th October 1996
2
3 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If you could get here a minute or two before
4 half past ten every morning and then we could start
5 promptly.
6
7 MS. STEEL: That clock is actually fast.
8
9 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is not that fast. If you did arrive by
10 half past ten, it was a pretty close shave.
11
12 MS. STEEL: I think we got here about twenty-five past.
13
14 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Really, the latest anyone should get to
15 court for a 10.30 start is twenty-five past. It is just
16 that everyone else involved in the case runs their
17 timetable on the basis of a 10.30 start and it is
18 irritating if we cannot ----
19
20 MS. STEEL: I was getting some photocopies done, which I am
21 just trying to sort out.
22
23 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Are these Miss Druce?
24
25 MS. STEEL: Yes. For some reason I got completely muddled up
26 with the photocopying. (Pause) I have them ready now.
27
28 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Could you ask the usher to stay a moment,
29 please, Mr. Atkinson? (Pause) (Handed). Yes?
30
31 MS. STEEL: I just wanted to whip through some of the evidence
32 of Clare Druce. Obviously, she related how she was the
33 national organiser of the Farm Animal Welfare Network which
34 was formerly known as Chickens Lib. Whilst she did not
35 have any formal qualifications to work with poultry, she
36 obviously had quite extensive experience because she had
37 kept poultry for many years and had studied their
38 behaviour, mostly poultry that was bought from battery and
39 other intensive farms.
40
41 Over the course of 25 years, she and Chickens Lib, the Farm
42 Animal Welfare Network, had researched into the poultry
43 industry very widely by various means. And in addition to
44 her personal experience from rearing the chickens which had
45 been bought from battery and broiler farms, she had carried
46 out a great deal of research into the broiler and battery
47 industry and had written a book about the intensive chicken
48 and egg industries. That was included in the Defendants'
49 original list of documents, I think it is document number
50 103, entitled 'Chicken and Egg, Who Pays the Price?' which
51 was printed in 1989.
52
53 Her work for poultry welfare was widely respected including
54 that in 1991 Chickens Lib had been awarded the Lord Erskine
55 Award by the RSPCA for furthering the cause of humane
56 husbandry systems. That was referred to on day 108, page
57 5, line 25.
58
59 The Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Foods ask the
60 Farm Animal Welfare Network for input when are were
