Scientist alleges U.S. Agriculture Department covering up cases of mad cow
A scientist and former inspector for the U.S. Agriculture Department says he’s willing to take a lie detector test to back his claim that his government is covering up mad cow disease.
Lester Friedlander, now a consumer advocate, was fired from his job as head of inspections at a large meat-packing plant in Philadelphia in 1995 after criticizing what he called unsafe practices.
Friedlander said U.S. Agriculture Department veterinarians sent suspect cow brains to private laboratories that confirmed they were infected with mad cow disease, but samples from the same animals were cleared by government labs.
He wouldn’t reveal the names of the veterinarians, saying in an interview that they still work for the Agriculture Department and would be fired if identified.
I am recalling something I read last summer, so I apologize if this is vague:
It is extremely likely, just given probabilities, that Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy already exists in the United States. When transferred to humans, the symptoms can take many years to show up, and they would manifest themselves first as lapses in memory/cognitive ability. As BSE progresses, it would resemble Alzheimer’s for awhile, until it gets to advanced stages.
(The thought was sobering, and then I went right on eating meat.)
What is your source for this article, vroom? I’m not saying I don’t believe you - I would jusrt like to know where thins article came from.
One would think that with the huge export market the U.S. beef industry has, there would be corroboration of this charge from countries that buy our beef.
On a slightly realted note - the court order to continue the ban on Canada’s beef was a totally selfish move and nothing to do with the Mad Cow risk.
Fed cattle futures are nearing $100/cwt. This is a bubble that could have been eased down had the U.S. went ahead on March 7 and opened the borders to Canadian beef.
Now we’re poised for a classic burst. And it won’t be pretty. Have you ever seen a bursted cow?
No issues at all… it came from Yahoo, it was a CP article. The guy in question is talking to our government while apparently our government deliberates on its own policies.
I’m not trying to fight out the beef debate… though of course it may be worthy of debating. Just wanted to show that government organizations are not always totally honest with their own citizens, though of course we only have allegations at this point.
You know, my mantra that blind trust in the government is dangerous, all that rot.
You have no idea how odd it feels for me to type this, but I agree with you on this one. Especially when you take into consideration the brew-haha surounding the recent extension of the Canadian beef ban.
There was no good reason whatsoever to keep the border closed to Canadian beef. None. But someone found a sympathetic judge, and blocked the opening just a day or two before it was to occur.
The tell-tale proof of you article’s assertion will be if there are any diagnosed cases of human mad cow. I’ve been very closely associated with the beef industry for almost 20 years, and I have never seen a demonstrated case of mad cow.
That’s not to say there hasn’t been one, but in the millions of head that I have been in contact with I’ve seen just about everything you can see that might go wrong in the bovine, except for mad cow. There is not the widespread hiding of mad cow, as the article might suggest. But I agree that there is every reason to believe that sweeping a few cases under the rug is not unbelievable.