Blame Canada!

by **Chacal** » Sun Dec 28, 2003 6:22 pm

Seems like the practice of giving animal feed to cattle stopped in 1997, but that particular cow was older than that.

by **Burningwick** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 5:03 am

Originally posted by Chacal
Seems like the practice of giving animal feed to cattle stopped in 1997

Technically it was. However, it still goes on though at reduced levels from before. The monotoring in the US is pitiful; not sure if Canada is any better or not.

by **cavalierlwt** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 7:29 am

One the news shows I watched the other night mentioned a feed company that caught using animal parts in their feed after the ban took effect, and thus was subject to a fine.
That's part of the problem right there. Don't fine these companies that break the law, they can always just pay up. Take and throw whoever made the decision in jail, real jail, even if its only for 3 months or so. Things will change pretty quick if these people face actual jail for making that decision.

by **Horsepower** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 12:11 pm

Originally posted by Burningwick
Technically it was. However, it still goes on though at reduced levels from before. The monotoring in the US is pitiful; not sure if Canada is any better or not.

one diseased cow gets through, but the US monitoring is pitiful? i'd say out of the millions upon millions of cattle in this country, those are pretty good numbers. maybe you're in the business and know something i don't.

by **Horsepower** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 12:17 pm

Originally posted by [Ritchie]
U.S. Traces Mad Cow to Canada?

At the time, no one knew why U.S. Farmers were burning their cattle secretly.....
.....now you do.

maybe it was for your country's domestic media consumption. strange how you heard about it WAAAAAAAAY over there in the UK, but i heard and saw nothing here. oh, and the state i live in is a top 3 cattle state.

ok, which one of you people in this forum called in the conspiracy theorist?

by **Murgatroyd** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 12:26 pm

Originally posted by Horsepower
one diseased cow gets through, but the US monitoring is pitiful? i'd say out of the millions upon millions of cattle in this country, those are pretty good numbers. maybe you're in the business and know something i don't.

Unfortunately, they only test cattle with symptoms. The system they are currently using is if a cow can't walk to the slaughterhouse, test it for BSE. Even if it can't walk to the slaughterhouse, they can still sell the meat, which is pretty disturbing. Kinda makes you think about the nature of the meat you're eating; that if an animal cannot physically carry itself to the slaughterhouse, for whatever reason, the meat can still be sold. Kinda makes me want to go vegetarian. BSE is nasty stuff. It's a prion, basically a protien that acts like a virus. Therefore, it can't be "cooked off"; no matter to what temperature you heat the meat, it remains present. It also has a 100% mortality rate in humans, and isn't a very pleasant death. Personally, I don't think people take this disease seriously enough.

by **Colonel Ingus** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 12:52 pm

Life has a 100% mortality rate.

by **Burningwick** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 1:01 pm

Originally posted by Horsepower
one diseased cow gets through, but the US monitoring is pitiful? i'd say out of the millions upon millions of cattle in this country, those are pretty good numbers. maybe you're in the business and know something i don't.

Sorry, I was a bit too vague with my statement. I was referring to how we monitor the feed that the the cattle get. It is illegal to give cattle feed containing nervous system tissue of other cattle/sheep. However, the only monitoring that goes on is to check the RECORDS of the companies involved to make sure they're being fed things that are safe. As everyone well knows, few cattle ranchers are going to be dumb enough to document it if they are giving their cattle illegal feed. No one ever goes out to actually inspect the feed that the cattle are receiving.

As for monitoring of BSE itself, Murgatroyd touched on that already. Only about 0.3% of our beef supply is ever tested for BSE. While it appears that we only have one cow that is infected, there could be many more and we would not know.

by **[Ritchie]** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 5:47 pm

Originally posted by Colonel Ingus
Life has a 100% mortality rate.

Very Existential.

And very correct.

:beer:

Have one on me for the new year!!!!

by **Anti-Hero** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 5:57 pm

Im sorry but why doesnt the U.S. do something about it instead of saying "its... from Alberta" i have nothing against americans, but they blocked out our beef when we had mad cow, now they have it and they blame Canada. I think theres Always going to be terrorism, or SARS, or Mad cow, so you might a well keep eating beef, flying to other places, swimming in dirty mosquito infested ponds (well maybe not the last one but the others) living in fear your entire life will get you no where.

by **Burningwick** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 6:54 pm

Originally posted by Anti-Hero
I think theres Always going to be terrorism, or SARS, or Mad cow, so you might a well keep eating beef, flying to other places, swimming in dirty mosquito infested ponds (well maybe not the last one but the others) living in fear your entire life will get you no where.

Not advocating cowering in fear the rest of one's life just heeding credible health threats when they are out there. I know it can be confusing for the general public the way the media makes it seem that everything you eat, smell and touch can kill you. Many end up ignoring all health threats out there. However, this Mad Cow issue is actually something to be taken seriously.

by **Murgatroyd** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 3:00 pm

Originally posted by Burningwick
Not advocating cowering in fear the rest of one's life just heeding credible health threats when they are out there. I know it can be confusing for the general public the way the media makes it seem that everything you eat, smell and touch can kill you. Many end up ignoring all health threats out there. However, this Mad Cow issue is actually something to be taken seriously.

This recent mad cow incident in the US has brought to light some sanitation issues regarding the beef (and probably meat) industry as a whole. Frankly, the idea that someone can sell me the meat of a diseased cow, so diseased in fact that it *couldn't walk* to the slaughterhouse is disgusting. Who knows what other loose standards govern the industry. Yuck.

by **sPEEDY TWEETy** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 4:25 pm

you know what was cool..at least i thought so...

when i was in ireland on vacation... and shopping in just about any of their grocery stores.. all of the meat or fowl had the owner of the exact farm the meat came from, as well as the farm address on the packaging..

now how about that for standing up and owning responsibility for your meat product you're offering to consumers...
i wonder how much "bad" practices would continue in the meat industry here in the US if they were told they have to supply their information on every package that contains their product.

by **Anti-Hero** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 5:50 pm

I heard that the infected cow was born befor the law where by you cant feed them brains/spines and what not, this being so should there not be a ban saying you cant sell cattle that have been born befor this law was implimented?

by **Burningwick** » Fri Jan 02, 2004 4:06 am

Originally posted by Anti-Hero
I heard that the infected cow was born befor the law where by you cant feed them brains/spines and what not, this being so should there not be a ban saying you cant sell cattle that have been born befor this law was implimented?

Certainly an interesting idea. I wouldn't say it around any cattle ranchers or they'd lynch you for sure

. I don't know if the prevelence of the disease was such to warrant this action though. Unfortunatly, with our current monitoring systems, we don't know much about the disease prevelence. I doubt that we would gain much by the ban anyway because even though the law was enacted against feeding brain/spinal tissue to other cattle, the practice did not stop once the law was made.

I'm not a vegan or anything but have been apalled at how poorly regulated the beef industry is in this area. Amazing to see how little we did even though we had seen what had happened in Europe and knew that BSE was right next door in Canada.

Blame Canada!

Who is online