http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/28/AR2008022804117.html
Stupid remark: "I do believe there are cases where downer animals can be approved by the veterinarian and put into
the food supply," Schafer said. "They are not sick."
USDA Rejects 'Downer' Cow Ban
Agriculture Secretary Finds Existing Meat-Processing Rules Adequate
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 29, 2008; Page A03
Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer told Congress yesterday that he would not endorse an outright ban on "downer" cows
entering the food supply or back stiffer penalties for regulatory violations by meat-processing plants in the wake of the
largest beef recall in the nation's history.
Appearing at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing, Schafer said the department is investigating why it
missed the inhumane treatment of cattle at the Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. in Chino, Calif., including workers
administering electric shocks and high-intensity water sprays to downer cows -- those too sick or weak to stand without
assistance.
The secretary announced interim steps such as more random inspections of slaughterhouses and more frequent
unannounced audits of the nearly two dozen plants that process meat for federal school lunch programs.
But he deflected calls from Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), the subcommittee chairman, for the government to ban all downer
cows from the food supply, increase penalties for violators and require installation of 24-hour surveillance cameras in
processing plants.
"The penalties are strong and swift, as we have shown," Schafer said. "Financially, I don't see how this company can
survive. People need to be responsible and, from USDA's standpoint, they will be held responsible. . . . They broke the
rules. That does not mean the rules are wrong. I believe the rules are adequate."
The hearing came 11 days after Agriculture officials ordered the recall of 143 million pounds of beef processed by
Westland/Hallmark, including 37 million pounds that had gone to school lunch and other public nutrition programs. No
illnesses have been linked to the recalled meat.
The recall was prompted by the release last month of secretly recorded video footage of the inhumane treatment made
by an undercover investigator for the Humane Society, who wore a special video camera under his clothes while
working at the plant last year. The company has been closed since Feb. 4, when the USDA's Food Safety and
Inspection Service withdrew inspectors from the slaughterhouse after verifying the mistreatment shown on the
videotape and discovering other problems.
"These images exposed wholly unacceptable gaps in American meat inspection systems," Kohl said. "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."
J. Patrick Boyle, president of the American Meat Institute, a trade association, called the Westland/Hallmark plant "an
anomaly, an extreme circumstance."
Government regulations prohibit slaughtering cattle for food if the animals cannot stand or walk on their own. An
inspecting veterinarian had said the Hallmark cattle were healthy enough to be used for food, but they subsequently
collapsed. Federal regulations require that such animals be reexamined by a veterinarian and slaughtered separately,
but that apparently was not done, officials said.
Cows that cannot stand up are supposed to be kept out of the food supply in part because they may be infected with
bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease. The disease is extremely rare in the United States, but
of the 15 cases documented in North America, most in Canada, the majority have been traced to downer cattle.
In 2004, after a downer cow slaughtered in Washington state was found to have the disease, then-Agriculture
Secretary Ann M. Veneman announced a ban on the sale of meat from downer cattle. At the time, 44 nations had
closed their borders to U.S. beef over safety concerns. But the department later changed the rules to allow the
slaughter of downer cattle if a USDA veterinarian examines them a second time and finds that the cows did not remain
on the ground because of an illness.
"I do believe there are cases where downer animals can be approved by the veterinarian and put into the food supply,"
Schafer said. "They are not sick."
The Humane Society, which believes all downers should be banned, sued the USDA this week over that policy, calling it
a "dangerous loophole."
"We need a rigorous inspections program because reckless behavior by a single company can have national and
global implications," Wayne Pacelle, the group's president, told the Senate panel. "How many other crises, recalls and
public scares can we tolerate before we adopt an unambiguous policy of combating mad cow in the food supply? . . .
We need a bright line on this."
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USDA corruption is palpable -- they have always had close ties to the meat industry who have tremendous influence to
be sure no rules are enacted which will cut into their profits . . . . Here is a letter to Editor I sent out earlier this week on
this subject:
February 25, 2008
Letter to Editor:
BSE and downers in USA:
There may be a huge disconnect between the truth and what the government says.
The US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) says there are about 195,000 downers in the US each year. Out of the 37 million
animals slaughtered each year, the USDA tests less than 40,000 animals for mad cow and only about 12, 500 downers
are tested.
Dr. Stanley Prusiner of UCSF, winner of Nobel Prize for his research on prions as the cause of TSEs (transmissible
spongiform encephalopathies - including BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy - mad cow disease) and the human
strain of the disease - CJD (Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease), etc. says there are over 970,000 downers each year, based
on 1 percent of 97 million animals in US herds..
The National Renderers Association puts the number of downers each year in the US at up to 1.8 million:
" Livestock Mortalities: Methods of Disposal and Their Potential Cost
"The estimates of livestock mortalities used throughout this report are believed to not include most "downer livestock",
many of which are currently processed into human food at specialized slaughter facilities.
The number of downer livestock in the US is unknown, but estimates put the number as high as 1.5% of all cattle, or
nearly 1.8 million cows per year (National Market Cow and Bull Audit). Legislation has been proposed to restrict the
use of downer livestock by meat packers, requiring instead that they be humanely euthanized." )"
The USDA itself had warned in 2003, in a Federal Register notice, that downed animals "represent a significant
pathway for spread of disease if they are not handled or disposed of with appropriate safeguards." A year later, in the
USDA's Federal Register notice on January 12, 2004, the agency gets even more specific: "Surveillance data from
European countries in which BSE has been detected indicate that non-ambulatory cattle are among the animals that
have a greater incidence of BSE than other cattle." (For instance, Swiss data show a 49 to 58 times higher chance of
finding BSE in downers than in cattle reported to veterinary authorities as BSE-suspect under passive surveillance.)
Despite this known threat, the USDA has been allowing these high-risk animals to be processed into meat for human
consumption.
A new strain of mad cow disease known as BASE (bovine amyloid spongiform encephalopathy) has been found. Dr.
Stanley Prusiner says "Strikingly, the molecular
signature of this previously undescribed bovine PrPSc was similar to that encountered in a distinct subtype of sporadic
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease."
Sporadic Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease ( sCJD ) is increasing in US and the rest of the world, and may be far more
widespread than officials acknowledge because autopsies and reporting of sCJD are not required.
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