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First (supposedly) US case of Mad Cow disease (in a cow)

03:58 / 24.12.03

Well, it finally happened, and we all knew it would: CNN.

So, does this freak anyone out? How did everyone in England handle it?

07:31 / 24.12.03

Burned all our cattle, basically.

04:42 / 25.12.03

England didn't catch it early enough. I'm not worried. Not until more cases spring up, anyway.

19:14 / 25.12.03

It has only been about six months since the outbreak here in Canada. Is there a possibility of relationship?
There may be...

From the link above:
"What does a mad cow in Canada have to do with U.S. beef? The government and cattle industry have been quick to point out that the sick cow was in another country. But the U.S. and Canadian cattle industries are inextricably linked: The U.S. imported 1.7 million head of Canadian cattle last year. And the one billion pounds of Canadian beef we import account for about 4% of U.S. beef consumption.?

The last time something threatened the US Beef market, - in 1998 - they took the cow to court. (Damn, I just couldn't resist!)

XXII:X:II = XXX

21:51 / 25.12.03

Blahaha, nice.

I would make some oath now about never eating at McDonalds again, but I think most of their "meat" comes from South America, so it's probably more dangerous, at least in terms of MCD (McD? Sayyyy...), to eat at an upscale steakhouse. Anyone know the state of the cattle health down there?

VJB2

16:22 / 27.12.03

The cows should be mad. What with being eaten all the time.

16:12 / 28.12.03

We deal with it in the UK by killing the animals at three years, before the test can produce proper positives.
And, does anyone know who it was who got sued or something for saying that there were mad cows in the US? It was about 10 years ago I think.
Macky D's always use locally produced meat, or so they claim.

16:22 / 28.12.03

Oops of course you know who it was - the above mentioned cow link... Ta anyway.

20:57 / 28.12.03

I love the papers. Yesterday many of them said it would take months to figure out where the cow came from. Somehow they decided by press time that it came from Canada...

...the Toronto Sun had a nice 'Blame Canada!' headline...

01

03:26 / 29.12.03

Fuck am I reaaaallly getting tired of The Machine lately. Is it me or are things becoming more and more we-have-always-been-at-war-with-Eastasia lately? Everything from the war in Iraq that's supposedly ended to this. I don't think the T.O. Sun is the vanguard of responsible journalism, but good for them for running that headline.

If Paul Martin (Canada's new PM for those of you who don't know) had any sense he should immediately shut off our markets to Yankee beef. The longer he doesn't the more it's going to look like we "infected" their supply. Plus it'd be a nice fuck you for them banning our beef without hesitation earlier this year. However I have little faith that he will do this as all his talk about "re-aligning ourselves with the US" and supporting Missle Defence has got him poised to be the next Brian Mulroney (PM in the '80's who was disgustingly chummy with Reagan for those of you who don't know).

Maybe I'm just extra pissed about this because my family has an organic beef ranch on the prairies and this affects them directly.