AR-News: (US MT) Downer beef isn't what we want for dinner

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

SUMMARY: Forget the cripples. Beef industry should shore up confidence in the 
healthy herd.

The discovery of America's first case of mad cow disease in December focused 
a lot of attention on the way the nation's meat is raised and processed. That 
first mad cow was a Washington state dairy cow sent to slaughter reportedly 
because it was crippled. Moving quickly to calm public fears about the safety of 
beef, the U.S. Department of Agriculture in January banned all crippled 
cattle from the human food supply, saying research shows so-called "downer" animals 
are far more likely to be diseased - with mad cow or other maladies - than 
outwardly healthy animals.

The ban met with wide public approval. All concern about mad cow aside, many 
consumers were unpleasantly surprised to learn that the beef industry had been 
serving up helpings of sick animals in the first place.
Even before the rule banning meat from crippled cows from the table takes 
effect, however, there's a move in Congress to narrow the definition of what 
constitutes a downer. Montana's Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg is a co-sponsor of a 
bill introduced last week to loosen the restrictions on what can be sold for 
human food.




full story:

http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2004/04/05/opinion/opinion2.txt 
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