U.S. Bans Sick 'Downer' Cattle for Meat

[Maeve]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=3&u=/ap/20031230/ap_on_re_us/mad_cow

WASHINGTON - The Agriculture Department dramatically upgraded the country's defenses against mad cow disease Tuesday, banning meat from all so-called downer cows and promising to create a nationwide animal tracking system, steps long advocated by critics.

These are "very aggressive actions," Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said Tuesday, one week after the first case of mad cow disease surfaced on U.S. soil in a Washington state Holstein slaughtered on Dec. 9
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Finally!

[twilight]

1. gee bad news for WinCo!

They got some of the tainted meat here in Calif. Trying lying about it WinCo! WinCo's food is pure shyte anyway and many poor people shop there because the prices are supposedly lower. They also buy the 1/2 rotted meat that is claimed to be "fresh".

WinCo's food, esp. the meat/fish/poultry is rancid much of the time. I bet they'll be heartbroken that they can't get anymore cheap crap food from sick cows!



:dem: :kick:

[burrowowl]

2. Yeah! And who and how

is the ban going to be enforced? Just like they are going after Corporate Crooks!
B$!

[twilight]

4. I heard WinCo's name flash by on the news ...

Just a F L A S H ... barely long enough to see/read it. They won't tell exactly WHO/WHERE this meat is. It's time to stop the damn lies and tell the truth! I want the truth about the deadly feast!

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:



:dem: :kick:

[CivilRightsNow]

10. Where they are

http://www.wincofoods.com/locations.html

[fob]

3. It would have been nice if she had done this weeks ago

when warned by Dr Stanley Prusiner, nuerologist at UCSF, at a meeting with her when he said "I went to tell her that what had happened in Canada was going to happen in the US. I told her it was a matter of time." Ms. Veneman's response left him frustrated. (Taken from NYT article by Sandra Blakeslee 12/25/03 - Expert Warned Mad Cow Was Imminent)

Or even better is the Dec 23, 2000 meeting with bush* and his transition team, where Veneman appointement was announced, when bush* likens the food supply to national security, yet somehow does absolutely nothing for 3 years.

fob

[Tempest]

5. Don't be fooled

This will be just like *'s "Leave No Child Behind" and other feel-good actions.

All talk, no funding.

[SOS]

6. Organizations

have been trying to get this done for years. For two reasons: the outrageous cruelty and torture these animals are subjected to and to improve the safety of the food supply. The US Congress REFUSED on three prior occasions to pass the downer ban.
But now that corporate profits are at stake, the Agriculture Dept. acts within a week.
Of course, like the feed ban of 1997, it will have huge loopholes and zero enforcement.
(Feed companies who have repeatedly violated the ban have not even been fined)
The Ag. Dept. doesn't give a rats ass about cows or people, only ConAgra's stock price.

[SoCalDem]

7. Call me cynical, but.

I have this sneaky suspiscion that all this has done is to drive this whole issue "underground"..

Does anyone really believe that after fattening up and paying for vet bills for a cow for years, it will just be "discarded"< and no one will make a buck off of it?

Those "ghost cows" will still be with us, they will just be "quietly" slaughtered and offered for sale on the cheap..

Notice too, how they have consistently said HUMAN food chain?? That only means that these cattle will still be used for animal food..

Our poor sweet pets, unless we can afford to pay premium prices for the "purer" food.. Watch for that to increase in price like never before :(

[Deb]

8. You're right

It's the whole dang cow that will go to the rendering plant for pet

food now, with NO testing required. How many of us have used a

household spoon to scoop out the last of the pet food can or used our

hands to pick up kibbles? We are switched to lamb for the dogs long

ago.

[kayell]

17. Rendered products are also used in cosmetics

Anyone here wear lipstick?

[dusty64]

14. I hope you're wrong, but

suspect you're right. Corporations simply can't be trusted to do the right thing. Sick and injured animals should be humanely euthanized by lethal injection to end their suffering and insure they aren't used as food. The practice and treatment of "downed" animals is disgusting and cruel and should have been completely banned a long time ago. It certainly doesn't reflect well on us as the Human race. Money before EVERYTHING and ANYTHING for money.

[aquart]

9. Think how much the beef industry could have saved

in campaign contributions if they'd just let this legislation happen in the first place.

But that's okay. The bought and paid for Congress will bail them out with our money.

Still, a good name once lost.........

[Sequoia]

11. And the cow said:

http://www.shagrat.net/Html/cows.htm

(Thanks to a previous DUer who posted this a few months back)Very recently I was doing some on-line research on Mad Cow and even picked up a great book by a French writer. Everyone told me I was over reacting because I wanted to get an interview set up to discuss this since I live in a cow town. Of course, I was away for Christmas when the news hit the fan. The beef industry is going to do all it can to save its neck. McDonalds has got to be nervous about this. Their profits are falling month after month and this sure can't help. Wonder how much money the beef industry give to Bush?

[Maeve]

12. That is a hoot!

Although the down-home girl in me is forced to point out that "he" shouldn't have an udder.....

It's a shame that the only way to get the industry to do the right thing is to threaten their income, but at least they are finally being forced to do what should have been done long ago...(and I'm proud of myself for not making a single "cash cow" reference! Oh, wait...I just did...)

[daleo]

13. U.S. and Canada should test all cattle

This is not enough:

From
http://www.prionics.ch/prionics-e.htm


In a first phase after infection, the infectivity of an affected animal is at a very low level. Officials therefore assume that BSE-infected animals do not pose a health risk to humans in this phase. Nevertheless, it should be stated here that the possibility of potential risks can not be completely ruled out.

In a second phase, before the occurrence of clinical symptoms, the infectious agent is found to be highly concentrated especially in the brain and in the spinal cord. It is this phase which represents the main risk factor for public health: an animal in this phase of infection poses the same risk to the consumer as a visibly ill animal, but is not detected due to the lack of signs of disease. The duration of the second phase is thought to be at least 6 months.

In a third phase clinical symptoms occur followed by death. The age of animals in the third phase of the disease ranges from 20 months to 16 years. The average and most frequent age is between 3 to 5 years.

[HereSince1628]

15. Hmm, closing the barn door after the cow is gone?

I suppose one could say better late than never

The interesting thing is I am sitting here looking at the back of the jacket of Molly Ivan's "Bushwacked" I got for a Christmas present and pondering the paragraph beneath the heading "Why the republican party is the party of unregulated meat and poultry"

[gate of the sun]

16. why were they allowing downer meat

anyway? They knew the potential for this to happen and did nothing. I bet it has been around for awhile and much more widespread then they even know. It really disgusts me.

[Venomous_Rhetoric]

18. Hope

"when warned by Dr Stanley Prusiner, nuerologist at UCSF, at a meeting with her when he said "I went to tell her that what had happened in Canada was going to happen in the US. I told her it was a matter of time"

Canada never used downer cows for human consumption, that was stopped long ago when the Uk had their BSE problems.
The Canada BSE case was completley different than the current USA case.
The Canadian cow died of pneumonia. It's carcass was deemed unfit for rendering (animal feed) and destroyed. Later it was discovered that it also had BSE, and that resulted in a ban on Canadian beef.

Only the USA uses downer cows for human consumtion. It was discovered the animal had BSE AFTER it had already been deboned and proccessed, although early stories said it hadn't. Then It was reported that "some"
was proccessed, but only localy. Now, they are saying it has been shipped and possibly consummed to 4 states, including Guam. The spine and brain were said to be removed however, so their is little risk.

Most countries test every downer cow before it is rendered for animal protien feed. However, in the USA, only one in ten downer cows are tested by the UCSF. This is another problem that needs to be corrected.

It is good news that the UCSF will no longer be using downer cows for human consumption, it has been a issue in the beef industry for some time.

The one remaining issue is for the UCSF to standardise testing to world beef industry standards. ALL countries test each and every downer cattle. Further, one in ten normal healthy cattle are tested, some countries test more some a little less.
Japan for example after their BSE outbreak in 2001, now test everycow proccessed for human consumption, and every downer animal.

The north American tagging and tracking system is actually quite good.
The ear tag is tamper proof, and all information for that tag must be kept by the producer(s) for 12 years.
Further, export/import animals have a health tag, as well as an internal chip which is implanted in the first stomach.

When the animal is slaughered, the pakaging tags reflect this tag number, so it can be easly tracked all the way back to the time the animal was born.

Believe me, Canadians DO NOT want the USA to have a beef ban either.
The beef industry is a North American intergrated market, what ever happens in the USA effects our markets as well.
Hopefully, these concerns raised by OUR customers will be resolved and implemented, and we can resume trade. Many people depend on it.

The customer is always right after all.

There is no question that another BSE case will show up somewhere. We must have the safeguards to be able to detect them quickly in place so our beef remains safe. BSE can be eliminated in short order. The cause has been determined, and eliminated in 1997.


Of course, some posters here are right. All the talk is no good without enforcement, inspectors etc.(jobs)

And, these downer cows will be rendered, but they MUST be tested first. My pets matter too, and so do the turkeys chickens and pigs that may be feed animal protiens.

Not my pigs though, All veggie fed!! :o)

[undergroundpanther]

19. When

When will we stop TRUSTING corporations?
When will we stop selling ourselves to THEM pretending as if they care about us like we as people matter more than the Ceo's creature comforts,wealth and "connections"?
When will we stop DEPENDING on corporations ,Ceo's and governmernts to"fix" and'do things they shouldn't have been allowed to try,steal,dominate and control in our world and communities in the first place?
I mean who gave corporate america the right to factory farm cows?
Feed cows to cows? I don't think Joe Q.public would have given them permission had he enough self respect and concern for his fellow human beings to get involved,blow the whistle and tell the truth of what goes on in corporate boardrooms.No more secrets for corporations,give them NO MORE of your permission or TRUST people! How bad do average people have to be burned by the 'elites'before they STOP trusting corporations?.

[porkrind]

20. This is just one of many required steps ...

It seems to me, from reading about mad-cow, several processes need to be implemented to eliminate the disease:

1. Feed cattle only plants, no meat. No exceptions, and provide monitoring and enforcement with penalties. Cattle are herbivores, but we have turned them into carnivorous cannibals by feeding them the processed remains of their kind. :puke:

2. Uniquely identify and track all cattle. In this age of computerization, this should not be a problem. UPS and FedEx can do it, why can't the cattle industry?

3. 100% testing for mad-cow, and possibly additional diseases, on all cows before they are mixed in with other meat.

4. Make the tracking and testing records public domain, open for any public scrutiny.


The elimination of "downer" cows from the food-chain is another issue. These should be eliminated simply because the public finds the treatment and eating of diseased animals repugnant. Even if they did pass the 100% mad-cow testing.

The short-sighted greed of the cattle industry has dealt a severe blow to its credibility and livelihood. It is also a shining example of how industry "self-regulation" can't work. :grr:

The cattle industry had ample time to plan and prepare for this. They saw it happen in Europe in the 90's, and they failed to implement the solutions of the Europeans. They made the decision that our nation's public health was less important to them than profits. :wtf:

Also, we currently test only 1 cow for each tens-of-thousands (I think ~30,000) that we don't test. They want us to think that the infected cow found was a single case, and they are taking care of it. Don't believe it. If they only test 1 in 30,000 cows and found a positive, it's likely that tens-of-thousands of cows are infected. :puke:

This is an epidemic that they didn't want to find. They will give platitudes and low-cost half-measures as solutions until they think the public is appeased. Then it's business as usual. :argh:

Time to go vegetarian. :scared:

[Venomous_Rhetoric]

21. The

Number is 20,000 cows are tested.
There are on average 200,000 downer cow cases in the USA per year.
The industry slaughters 30-40 million cows a year.

Since 1997, they are not supposed to feed ANY animal by-product to ruminants.

[cliss]

22. I wonder.....

what's the story on this? Once again, I'm hearing different stories. Several threads, (and they are using legitimate news links), have quoted the fact that in August of 1997, the use of "cannibal pellets" was outlawed.

In other threads, I've read that this was RECOMMENDED, but not enforced. In other words, there were no laws enforced, no one was going to be put out of business if they in fact did give their cows animal by-products.

So once again, I'm not sure what to believe, like the age of the cow. Will go out into the Internet "world" and do some research.

[FlaGranny]

24. I'm quite certain that

using sick animals for human feed is a relatively new development. I seem to remember that it used to be illegal to do it and that sick animals were used only for animal feed (still repulsive). I have no idea if this is actually true, but it is the impression I've always had. In fact, I've always worried about pet food because of the assumption that all meat from sick and dead animals was used for pet food.

[truthseeker1]

23. Another funny one

www.themeatrix.com