Personal Injury Law

Mad Cow Disease Sure Gets Their Attention

Mad cow disease is an awful way to die. Contracting it is a little like coming down with Alzheimer’s, with the body and brain both deteriorating — except that it affects people of any age, not just the elderly. It is terrifying even to think about.

Enough time has passed on the breaking news that was the Chino slaughterhouse that writers are weighing in with analysis pieces.   The quote above was from the New York Times story that ran over the weekend by Joe Nocera.  It ran the business section and can be found here.

Nocera does a good job of logging all the events that followed the secret video taping of extreme cruelty to "downer" cows inside the Chino meat processing plant that is owned by Hallark/Westland.   He then gets into the controversy, writing that:

You see, downer cows — animals that are not standing on their feet when they are slaughtered — are said to have an increased risk of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (B.S.E.), the dreaded mad cow disease

Today there is another analytical story out on "downer cows" by the Chicago Tribune's Stephen J. Hedges.  It ran in the Buffalo News and can be found here.  Hedges notes that:

But the video also has focused new light on a practice that some animal welfare and food safety experts contend is an old problem: the use in beef production of dairy cows that are spent and barely able to stand, due to calcium depletion from being milked intensively for years.

If we put aside concerns about the nation's school lunch program and all the problems surrounding the biggest beef recall in history, we still cannot help be being struck by the fact that all of this is occurring without causing anyone illness nor even being considered much of a health risk. 

But the potential threat from "downer" cows and Mad Cow Disease has sure captured everyone's attention.  So read on and remember, the pictures with some of these stories are graphic.  We've decided not to put anymore of them here.  At least for now.

Full post as published by Mad Cow Blog on March 10, 2008 (boomark / email).