Laws & Politics Veterinarians decide which cows are safe to eat
By Jimmy Downs
Aug 17, 2008 - 1:26:51 PM
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SUNDAY August 17, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) -- Many beef
lovers may not know a fact that the meat they eat may come from a downer.
Many if not all downers, cows that can't
stand and walk into the slaughter house because of their age or health
condition, are processed into beef.
Early an undercover Humane Society employee videotaped at
least one downer walking into a Westland/Hallmark slaughterhouse. The video
showed how the workers abused the sick or old animals.
Techniques used to force the downers to stand
up and walk into the slaughterhouse include waterboarding, Reuters reported
early.
The Humane Society of the United States has sued the Food
and Drug Administration to ban killing of the downers and the case drew
attention from senators, naturalnews.com reported. Sen. Herb Kohl of Wisconsin,
chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee, called for a complete ban on
downer cows from the food supply.
"These images exposed wholly unacceptable gaps in
American meat inspection systems," Kohl was quoted as saying.
"Despite the presence of five inspectors at the Westland/Hallmark plant, blatant
violations had evidently occurred for some time ... I think we need a more
foolproof system."
In 2004, the USDA actually prohibited slaughtering of
downers because these animals are at higher risk of mad cow disease or less
commonly known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy. It is recognized that
eating meat tainted with the disease causes a human version of mad cow disease
in humans.
But according to naturalnews.com, the ban was relaxed in
2007 in a way that the slaughtering of animals that collapse after an initial veterinary
inspection is allowed.
So long as they
are re-examined and the veterinarian believes the cow is safe to eat, the slaughtering
process can be completed.
Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer testified before the
appropriations subcommittee saying, quoted by naturalnews.com,"I do believe there are cases where
downer animals can be approved by the veterinarian and put into the food
supply." Schafer added: "They are not sick."
Naturalnews.com cited USDA documents saying "cows
with broken limbs, even those that appear otherwise healthy, are 50 times more
likely to have mad cow disease than animals that can stand on their own."
A couple of mad cow disease has been even identified in
U.S. cows. The testing process has not been easy.
It took three tests conducted by laboratories
in both U.S. and U.K. to confirm a case of the disease.
Some critics question how the inspection by a
veterinarian could detect cows with mad cow disease and prohibit them from
being processed into the food supply chain?
In Japan, each cow is subject to testing for mad cow
disease before its meat is released for consumers' purchasing.
In the U.S., private organizations including
meat packers are prohibited from testing any cow for mad cow disease.