Submitted by John Stauber on
USA Today examines the threat of mad cow disease in the U.S. asking "did you know ... that calves, instead of drinking their mothers' milk, are fed formula made from cows' blood? ... Says John Stauber, [co-]author of Mad Cow USA: Could the Nightmare Happen Here?: 'What we need to do is obvious but economically painful for the livestock industry.
Submitted by John Stauber on
In 1997 Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber wrote Mad Cow USA, warning that that mad cow type diseases were possible in the U.S. Even now, in the face of North America's first case of mad cow disease in Canada, the powerful livestock industry and their friends in government are refusing to adopt the strict British standards regarding animal feeding and testing. USA Today editorializes that "Lax federal regulation and enforcement have left the U.S.
Submitted by John Stauber on
In 1997 Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber wrote Mad Cow USA:
Could the
Nightmare Happen Here. To further public education the book is now available free on our website as a
HREF="https://www.prwatch.org/books/madcow.html" target="_blank">PDF
download. It predicted that Mad Cow
Disease and similar ailments were likely to emerge in North America since
the US (and Canada following its lead) refused to ban all feeding of
Submitted by John Stauber on
Wisconsin's huge deer herd is infected with chronic wasting disease (CWD), a deadly dementia that is a mad cow-type disease in deer, filling their brains with swiss cheese-like holes and plaque. The best available scientific evidence indicates that CWD, like British mad cow disease, could infect and kill humans. Rather than learn from Britain's mistakes and take a precautionary approach, Wisconsin has launched a PR and advertising campaign to belittle human health concerns and promote hunting.
Submitted by John Stauber on
As we explain in our book Mad Cow USA, billions of pounds of rendered by-product from slaughterhouse waste are fed to livestock each year in the US. This is the practice that spread 'mad cow disease' in British cattle, a disease that has now spread to humans and is killing a growing number each year. The US has its own versions of mad cow-type diseases including chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer and elk.
Submitted by John Stauber on
Food industry front group Consumer Freedom, run by tobacco lobbyist Rick Berman, is doing its best to confuse the public and the press about chronic wasting disease (CWD), a mad cow-type disease spreading across North America. Berman's lobby group has been savaging us for writing our 1997 book Mad Cow USA and for continuing to investigate and comment on this issue.
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
"The Wisconsin Medical Society on Thursday warned hunters that no test can tell them whether the venison from their deer is safe to eat," reports Ron Seely. Nevertheless, state officials are urging hunters to go all-out in harvesting (and consuming) deer in the hope that a special hunt will kill enough to halt the spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD). Like mad cow disease, CWD disease is a fatal brain illness caused by an infectious, malformed protein called a prion.
Submitted by Laura Miller on
"We're watching the total failure of any adequate preventive policy at the state or federal level," PR Watch's John Stauber told Salon.com's Fran Smith. "Stauber believes the government's response to CWD is disturbingly similar to Britain's failure to take quick action to stem mad cow," Smith writes.
Submitted by John Stauber on
Wisconsin has a "deer management" problem. Chronic wasting disease, called CWD but dubbed mad deer disease, has been found in its wild herd of 1.6 million deer. Sales of hunting licenses, and thus state revenue from sales, are down 22% as the big fall hunt approaches. The state's hunting industry is suffering financially and running radio ads and posting billboards that ridicule hunter health concerns as "media hysteria." However, the World Health Organization says that no part of an infected deer should be eaten.
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
"After six years, escalating legal fees and a celebrated trial in the heart of Texas cattle country, a federal judge has dismissed a lingering lawsuit accusing Oprah Winfrey of maligning the beef industry," reports the Associated Press. After Winfrey did a show in April 1996 about mad cow disease, a group of Texas cattlemen sued her and vegetarian activist Howard Lyman under the state's "agricultural product disparagement" law.
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