Here are the undisputed facts: In October of 2001, a dairy farm in Washington bought a cow from a Canadian source. On December 9, that same cow was slaughtered and sent for processing. By this time it was a “downer” cow — one sufficiently ill that could no longer stand up. On December 23, it was announced that after testing, the cow in question was found to have bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), otherwise known as mad cow disease. In response, there was a recall of 20 cows worth of meat, reportedly about 10,000 pounds, “to reassure the public” and with an “overabundance of caution.” Oh, you didn’t know it was legal to sell cows too sick to stand up and make food out of them? Blame Congress. There is still time to send a letter before they get back to work after Christmas (January 20. It must be nice.)
Here’s where things get dicey. Once it was clear that chopping up very sick animals and feeding them to animals who are not sick was a bad idea — an idea which should have been common sense — both the United States and Canada banned the use of cow parts in cow food back in 1997. That’s 6 years ago. The problem is that the official American records on this cow indicate that it was born in 1999, 4 years ago.
Or was she? One of the links above says 5 years. One source even claims the cow was 12 years old! Today they are saying the Canadian paperwork shows the cow was 6, maybe even 6 and a half. So then, is it even plausible that somebody made an honest mistake? Or did somebody deliberately make the cow out to be 2 years younger than it was? And in that case, who did it and on which side of the Canada-America border? Who should be expecting the fraud lawsuit Monday morning?
Oh, but don’t pin all the blame on the cattle brokers. It seems that the bad-stuff-in-feed ban isn’t enforced as well as it probably should be. In fact, even officials admit there is now only 99% compliance. You wouldn’t think it was hard to keep cow parts out of the feed mix, but apparently it is!
After we figure out little details like where the cow came from, when it was really born, and how the heck it came to have a terrible brain eating illness that can be transmitted to humans who eat it, the next step will be to track down every cow that shared a feeding trough with it. Most of these cows are likely to still be alive. Perhaps insane, but alive. Be skeptical if absolutely none of the cattle in question turn out to be infected.
These guys suddenly don’t seem as wacky as they used to.