Ackerman Introdues Legislation To Prevent Mad Cow Scare

ACKERMAN INTRODUCES LEGISLATION TO PREVENT MAD COW SCARE

U.S. Rep Gary Ackerman (D-Queens/L.I.) today introduced legislation with Ohio Republican Rep. Steven LaTourette to prevent meat from sick, diseased and injured livestock - so-called "downed" animals - from entering the United States food supply. Of the eleven confirmed cases of Mad Cow Disease in North America, ten (and possibly all eleven) have involved downed animals.

Ackerman has been attempting to bar such downed animals from the food chain for more than a decade, arguing that these livestock should be humanely euthanized rather than dragged to the slaughterhouse and eaten. In 2003, after the first confirmed case of mad cow disease in the United States, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) finally imposed a loose and temporary version of Ackerman's measure.

However, Ackerman's bill, entitled the Downed Animal Protection and Food Safety Act, would ban downed animals from the food chain permanently. It would also expand the ban beyond cattle to include all livestock capable of carrying similar forms of mad cow disease such as pigs, goats, horses and mules.

Just months before the first U.S. Mad Cow scare in 2003, Ackerman's measure to ban downed animals was defeated by on the House Floor by three votes (199-202).

"For years, the cattle industry and those who represent them have foolishly put profit ahead of public health and wound up jeopardizing both," Ackerman said. "Every time we sounded the alarm bells, the industry rushed to block this legislation. With Americans still rightly concerned over mad cow disease, I hope that the cattle industry will finally take its head out of the sand and get out of the way of this bill."

The Congressman noted that during the course of his 13-year crusade to enact the ban, the leading fast food chains such as McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's as well as the federal school lunch program, have all barred the use of meat from downed animals.

The legislation has been endorsed by a diverse group of organizations including the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), Consumers Union, Public Citizen, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the Humane Society of the U.S., the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the Fund for Animals, Farm Sanctuary, the Doris Day Animal League, Friends of the Earth, actresses Mary Tyler Moore, Kim Basinger and artist Peter Max among others.

http://www.house.gov/list/press/ny05_ackerman/PR_070124.html