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Current affairs report and analysis
The Story so far
For the first time, the British government recently (March '96) acknowledged a plausible link between "Mad-cow disease" and a new, unexplained form of fatal brain degeneration in people. After a decade of denials, the admission was like a gunshot at a dinner party. It set off a consumer panic with overnight bans on British beef across the Continent and around the world. An animal disorder that once seemed to be the stuff of tabloid scares was now a certifiable concern.
Amid the stampede of bans and consumer boycotts, cooler heads struggled to evaluate the true extent of the danger. They found it next to impossible to do. On the one hand, the British Government still insists that there is no "scientific proof" that establishes a definite link between bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, and the 10 cases of a strange human brain infection, possibly a new strain of the disorder known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or CJD, which have been found to date. On the other hand, the Health Secretary conceded that "the most likely explanation at present" for the unexplained disorder is "exposure" to contaminated meat.
The most accepted view is that whatever cross-species infection may have occurred must have happened before 1989 when Britain banned human consumption of parts of slaughtered cattle that might harbour the disease: the brain, spinal cord, thymus, tonsils, intestines and spleen. Other safeguards were also added to beef: the deboning of older cattle carcasses as well as the banning of bone meal and all mammal flesh in livestock feed. The best theory about how cattle picked up their madness was by way of scrapie-infected sheep brains mixed into protein supplement for British cows.
As beef prices plummeted at auction markets and farmers faced the stark threat of ruin, one remedy under serious consideration was the destruction of a large part, or even all, of the 11.8 million head of cattle in England, Scotland and Wales.
What about kosher meat?
The kosher meat trade only uses cattle under two years of age which is likely to make the meat less susceptible to BSE. The younger age groups of cattle would not have access to the contaminated feed, so the risk is considerably less.
What about the animals?
It is incredible that in all the news reports about the beef crisis, where mass extermination of British cows has been suggested, no thought of the moral issue of destroying so many living creatures has even been considered. Cows are bred en masse for their meat and milk, they are fattened up to increase their value and in the early 80s these herbivores were feed meat! Yet now, because their is the slightest danger of humans being hurt, there is an immediate suggestion of wiping out a third or even the whole of the cow population of the U.K. We caused the problem so why should the animals have to pay with their lives?
The reason that this solution is not even considered is money. The life of the herd is not valued, only the price is. As Time Magazine puts it: 'a national herd worth perhaps $12 billion'. Britain will find, or by the time you read this may already have found, a cheap solution to this crisis but it will not have been anything to do with a sincere concern for animal life. Animals are used and abused. The words of Genesis are being forgotten. If Man cannot care for the animal kingdom then what right does he have to rule it? Can we still be called Mankind?
What can you do?
There is a misconception that only vegetarians and vegans really care for animals. This is untrue. Meat eaters can also be concerned that animals are reared and slaughtered in a humane way. The following societies are educational charities which promote the ideals of compassion and justice to all animals.
- The Jewish Vegetarian Society,
- The Vegetarian Society,
- The Vegan Society
- Animal Aid
- Beauty without Cruelty (combats fashion cruelties)
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The selfishness of people to breed cattle when they are useful and destroy them when they are not is amazing. We can kill animals for food, but if we are not going to eat them now then what right do we have to end their lives? Old and worn out donkeys are often not destroyed, they are left to live out their days in a specially made farm. Why can't these cows be left in the same way? New, uncontaminated herds could be reared separately from these potentially diseased cows.