Whatever happened to the guy

[ianben]

Dont know the details of your mad-cow.But from expreience in UK the infection is in brain long before physical signs appear. To get to the state of our famous television cow I think would have taken two years. This is why since 96 in UK all beef eaten has been under 30 months old. Older animals being removed from food chain(incinerated) at an annual cost of about £4million. News today is this may no longer be necessary.

Will there be a buyer for this beef?

Your problems may not end with an open border as we found out with the French.

Still very little export demand for UK beef. No amount of assurances and tracking systems removes the stigma of eating a product that could cause brain damage to you and your loved ones. The risk may be minicule but is so easy to avoid by eating other products or beef which comes from countries "free"(not yet detected)of BSE.

Good luck, but in my experience there is no good news concening BSE.

[kato]

The thing that amazes me is that this cow was even taken to a slaughter facility. In Manitoba, if a cow can't walk on to a trailer under her own steam, she goes nowhere. There are fines and charges given to anyone who tries hauling a downer cow. These animals here are inspected on the farm by a veterinarian, who decides if they are fit to go to slaughter, or just for euthanasia.

[kato]

Something sounds out of place here. IF she were a downer, and if some of the earlier responders called this fellow greedy for trying to salvage a downer, and if the cow came from Alberta, then WHY would he try to haul her all the way to Manitoba to be processed? Sounds like too far a trip to risk her dying along the way. Me thinks you have your story skewd.

[kato]

I didn't mean she was hauled to Manitoba, just that if she'd been a Manitoba cow, she never would have made it off the farm.

I am also surprised that other provinces allow the hauling of downer cows.

[kato]

Downer cows should not be put on the truck, period. The individual may think that salvage is a possibility, but the money made thru that is not worth it. The cost to every individual will be much larger, every time the industry gets a black eye from poor marketing of live animals, since some consumers become uncomfortable. I don't think this is something we can say out of a self-righteous know-it-all attitude, but it is certainly something we have learned from this incident. And, like it or not, the consumer is king. If they don't buy, we don't sell.

[ALICIA]

Thanks for the laugh.
You's have got two different storys rapped into one. I hope you's aren't thinking of running for Ag. Minister, or would you happen to be our customers.

[wilagro]

If the downer cow had been hauled out for the coyotes to eat, would BSE have ever been discovered in Canada? Was this the ONLY case? Or has it been here but in small enough numbers that it escaped detection?
Perhaps this incident will be a heads up for a lot of producers and especially governments who have decimated our inspection system and allowed industries to do there own policing of procedures and standards.

Things are going to be a lot tougher from now on.

[cakadu]

The rules and regulations regarding downed animals need to be tougher as do the regulations for what goes into feedstuffs that go into animals destined for the human food chains. I think we need to go as far as not putting any rendered animals into what will eventually be eaten in the human food chain.

Having said that though, those who write the regulations should NOT be the ones entrusted for their policing and regulation. In my mind you cannot write the policies and then be responsible for enforcing/promoting or what have you. One or the other has to be done by a 3rd party that is independent from the law-making body.

Regardless of what the fellow did, there is a lesson to be learned here for all of us. We can't change what he did, only change what happens from here on in.

I hope the borders do get opened soon.