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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: T L Comiskey who wrote (33880)	12/30/2003 11:37:03 PM
From: lurqer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

the Bush administration is banning the meatpacking industry from slaughtering sick cattle Hmmm...That's not what I saw on the tube. What I saw was a statement that downer cattle were banned from the human meat consumption supply. There was no mention that the downers couldn't be slaughtered, or that their meat couldn't be used for other purposes than direct human consumption. Now maybe I'm just being paranoid here, but that is what I heard. In fact, at the time, the thought that occurred to me was could the meat from downers end up in cattle feed? Here's a NYT article that supports my recollection. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman announced several new rules today to improve the safety of America's beef products, as regulators cope with the first case of mad cow disease in United States history. Effective immediately, she said, the Agriculture Department will ban all sick, or "downer," cattle from the human food chain. She also announced bans on the use of small intestines and head and spinal tissue from older cattle for human consumption. The actions that we're taking today are steps to enact additional safeguards to protect the public health and maintain the confidence of consumers, industry and our trading partners in our already strong food safety and protection systems," Ms. Veneman said at an afternoon briefing. The secretary and her top aides have been trying to reassure the American people, and America's foreign trading partners, that they have nothing to fear from beef, despite the discovery that a Holstein slaughtered in Washington State on Dec. 9 was afflicted with mad cow disease. Mad cow disease, which killed scores of people in Britain several years ago, is spread through contaminated brain and spinal tissue, which is why use of animal feed using those substances has been banned in the United States and Canada since August 1997. Federal officials have insisted that consumers have almost nothing to fear, since beef cuts from muscle tissue are not affected by the disease. But out of what Ms. Veneman has termed "an abundance of caution," the department has recalled more than 10,000 pounds of meat from animals that were also slaughtered on Dec. 9 at the same Washington State location. The American beef industry has already been hard hit, as several companies have banned imports of American beef. Ms. Veneman announced several changes in slaughterhouse procedures, including one that is likely to provoke controversy. Effective at once, she said, animals about to be slaughtered will no longer be stunned with air-injection guns applied to the head. "This will further strengthen our systems by decreasing the risk of any brain material becoming dislodged during the slaughter of an animal," she said. It was not immediately clear what devices, if any, might be used to stun the animals before they are killed. People concerned about the treatment of animals have long complained that slaughterhouses are often inhumane in any event. Gene Bauston, president of the New York-based animal rights group Farm Sanctuary, which has been suing the government for years to try to stop the use of downed animals for food, applauded the ban on sick cattle. "This is a good thing for animals and a good thing for people," Mr. Bauston told The Associated Press. "These animals are made to suffer horribly, humans are put at risk, and there has never been an excuse for this practice." Ms. Veneman said the ban on downed cattle should have little or no effect on beef prices, since there have been only 150,000 to 200,000 such animals among the roughly 35 million slaughtered each year in the United States. nytimes.com >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Sorry, but given this Admin's record, I've learned to parse their words carefully. JMO lurqer