June 27, 2005
The U.S. Agriculture Department is under increasing pressure to better meet the threat of "mad cow" disease. The Humane Society of the United States says USDA must permanently ban the slaughter of downed cattle to protect the food supply.
The call comes in the wake of news that a second cow has tested positive for mad cow disease. Of the cattle that have tested positive for the disease, the group says every one of them has been a "downer" - an animal too sick or injured to walk on its own.
"The downer ban put into place by the Agriculture Department at the end of December 2003 kept this sick animal out of the meat case, preventing another economic catastrophe for the cattle industry," said HSUS President and CEO Wayne Pacelle. "The recent talk by USDA and industry officials of weakening the downer ban should end today, and a permanent downer ban should be announced immediately for the welfare of the animals and for the safety of the public."
According to reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the BSE-positive animal was a nine years old and was a downer. Conflicting test results led to the additional testing, which was conducted at the urging of the USDA's Office of Inspector General.
After the discovery of the BSE-positive downer in Washington State in December 2003, the USDA published an emergency rule banning the processing of downer livestock. That rule is still in effect, and a post-adoption public comment period on the rule yielded 22,000 comments - 99 percent of which favored the downer ban. The vast majority of the comments also urged USDA to extend the downer ban to apply not only to cattle, but also to other livestock.
Both the House and Senate had previously voted to ban the processing of downer livestock, but lawmakers ultimately jettisoned the provisions.
Representative Gary Ackerman (D-NY) and Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI) intend to introduce legislation soon to codify the downer cattle ban and to extend it to apply to pigs and other livestock.
The USDA has consistently announced BSE-positive test results on Fridays, when they hope that the rest of the country is getting ready for the weekend or a holiday, the HSUS also charged. "The USDA is making it difficult for the public to get the full story, with oddly timed press events," adds Pacelle.
Earlier, the consumer organization Consumers Union called on USDA to toughen its testing procedures on cattle. Speficially, the group asked Agriculture Secretary Michael Johanns to require USDA to test all cattle over 20 months of age at slaughter and adopt the most accurate and sensitive "Western blot" test as part of its testing protocol in suspected mad cow cases.