Mad Cow disease in Alabama

Read a report today on MSN about a cow coming down with mad cow disease or BSE in Alabama. This is the third such case in the U.S. since Dec. 2003. Which is not a ton, I know... and not a lot compared to the cases in the UK, but kinda scary, nonetheless.

The U.S. ships a lot of beef to Japan and other foreign countries but the Agriculture Department doesn't seem too worried about it affecting their shipments in the future nor are they nervous about it affecting citizens in the U.S. - even tho this disease can kill people and has killed people in the UK. Japan has already stopped accepting veal because they found backbone in the cutlets... which makes me happy and I hope this continues to happen because it's sickening to see how the animals are kept while being fattened and readied for slaughter. Veal comes from baby calves and I completely disagree w/ killing these animals for food, and I also vehemently disagree w/ taking these young calves away from their mothers, but I'm not a meat eater... so...

I've also seen hidden camera takes from inside these meat packing plants and it's disgusting to see how they handle the meat and/or their lack of hygene in these facilities. I believe that steps have been put into place in recent years to keep things safe, but... one never knows.

For any of you that don't know about it - this disease eats away at the brain of the animal, and it's a horrible thing to see. It's sad to watch what happens to these animals infected w/ this disease. I wonder how all of this came about. Is it from all the different types of chemicals and medicine that they shoot into these poor animals or is it from the fact that they *used* to add ground up cattle remains to cattle feed? Long ago, everyone was afraid to eat beef from the UK because all you heard about was that they were infected and dying from mad cow disease. One cow infected in the U.S. came from Canada, they say... so I guess if cattle in the U.S. ate the remains of these infected cows back before 1997, then the chances of them going down w/ mad cow disease is pretty high. But, what do I know! I'm only a consumer and a vegetarian!

Not that the U.S. will EVER divulge to the general public how this is happening... because it's only thru undercover invetigations that the truth eventually comes out about things in the U.S. (sad but true in many instances). The Bush administration sure is doing everything they can to reassure Japan and other nations that American beef is good though.

hmmmm makes me wonder if someone's having their pockets padded from the sale of beef.... and I mean heavily padded. I really think that all of these ppl, government officials and such are all just money hungry pieces of crap! They'll do anything, sign anything, say anything as long as dollars are pouring into the pockets of the right individuals. Do they care about the public and whether or not someone gets infected w/ mad cow disease? Probably to the extent that they might not get as much money from the sale of beef if the general population goes berserk w/ fear that they'll contract mad cow disease... so isn't it better to keep things hush hush?! But, then again, everything is being done to safeguard the public, right?!

I've heard stories/rumors that the reason teenage girls are becoming so "developed" is because of all the stuff that's injected into these animals, including chickens, turkeys and so on. You see girls that are 12 and 13 walking around w/ figures of 20+ year olds. Is it the meat that is causing this? Is it all the chemicals they're putting into food nowadays?

I guess we'll see what happens to the general population in 20 or so years from now. Makes you wonder what new illnesses will appear or what new types of cancer will immerge.