"Coas****cher" > wrote in message
...
> I think it is sick that they even use sick animals for slaughter! Hey
> if they're sick I don't want them in my hamburger! I think WDC ought to
> bombarded to get this changed NOW!

They can slaughter sick cows, but meat from the sick cows is not supposed to
go into the human food chain. Meat from a physically injured animals (Ie.
the cow has broken it's leg, but does not have a pathological disease) can
be eaten.

I think there is a lot of misinformation going around out there, and this
particular piece is one of the biggest ones. Yes, you can eat meat from an
injured animal, so long as the animal is not sick in any other way at all.
(The actualy injured area, ie the leg that's actually broken, is supposed to
be discarded). If the cow is sick with a disease, it's not supposed to be
used for human consumption...

This Diggery Dew is a fear monger, IMO. This person may live in the town
that the cow came from, but I'm sure there are probably a lot of rumors
spreading around there too. This person probably heard a rumor and got all
worked up over it and just had to share. The whole thing about the vet
taking samples, then they sent the cow off? The animal has to be dead
already to test for bse--they use brain and spinal cord samples. You start
taking parts of a living beings brain and spinal cord, they're probably not
going to recover from that. The cow has to be *alive* to sell it at
market... so, they couldn't have killed the cow, taken the samples, and then
sent the cow off to be sold for human consumption.