A U.S. ‘Mad Cow’ Case: Let the Questions Begin

Re “Bovine Disease Surfaces in U.S.,” Dec. 24: Apparently “mad cow” disease has reared its ugly head in the U.S., and Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman has stated that it’s “not an act of terrorism.” Oh really? Wouldn’t the feeding of ground-up animal parts to animals that are strictly vegetarian, with the known outcome of bovine spongiform encephalopathy and potentially the resultant human variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, if that is what happened, be a deliberate act based on greed?

When are we going to learn in this country that terrorism based on economics is every bit as real and pervasive as that committed in the name of Allah or any other ideology?

Doug Lenier

Valley Glen

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Whether the infected animal has been sold in stores or not is probably a moot point. The animal’s products were probably sold as fresh meat.

Given that the animal was slaughtered Dec. 9, the meat was probably consumed shortly thereafter. The only saving grace will be if the meat was sold frozen or for dog or cat food.

But this is all academic, because a cow can take as long as six years to show symptoms of the disease. Therefore, it’s possible a great many cows in the Pacific Northwest have it, and so may a great many people who have eaten that meat. Japan and South Korea have both suspended beef imports. They probably receive much of their U.S. beef from the Pacific Northwest.

Robert Calderon

Irvine