BSE cover-up a ‘misquote’

[HAY MAKER]

BSE cover-up a ‘misquote’



USDA vet: Misquoted on mad cow cover-up

WASHINGTON, April 14 , 2005



A former U.S. meat inspector recently cited as saying he would take a lie detector test regarding assertions of a mad cow cover-up says he was misquoted.



Lester Friedlander, a U.S. Department of Agriculture veterinarian who retired in 1995, told United Press International when he mentioned his willingness to take a lie detector test he was referring to his assertion that a USDA official had told him in 1991 not to say anything if he ever did find a case of mad cow disease in U.S. herds.



Friedlander was quoted widely in various media reports that he would take a lie detector test regarding his statement that other USDA inspectors had told him of cows that had been tested at private labs and come back positive for the deadly disease.



"I don't know if that's true," Friedlander said. "That's just what they told me."



Friedlander said he was considering an offer from a Los Angeles psychologist to conduct a lie detector test on him.



The USDA denied it had covered up cases of mad cow disease. To date, only one case of the deadly disease has been detected in U.S. cattle.

[Bill]

UPI: USDA refused to release mad cow records

by Brendan O'Neill on 12/26/03 for Meatingplace.com
According to United Press International, the Agriculture Department refused to release its tests for mad cow during the past six months. UPI said USDA reported it has tested about 20,000 cows for the disease in 2002 and 2003, but has been unable to provide any documentation in support of this.

UPI's report comes in the wake of Tuesday's announcement by Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman that a cow slaughtered on Dec. 9 on a farm in Mabton, Wash., had tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

USDA officials told UPI as recently as Dec. 17 the agency was still searching for documentation of its mad cow testing results from 2002 and 2003. UPI initially requested the documents on July 10, and after repeated attempts over the past six months, including Freedom of Information Act requests and threatened legal action, USDA never sent any corresponding documents.

"If any documents exist, they will be forwarded," USDA official Michael Marquis wrote in the letter, according to UPI.

"The government doesn't have records to substantiate their testing so how do they know whether this is an isolated case," Lester Friedlander, a former USDA veterinarian who has been insisting mad cow is present in American herds for years, told UPI.

Michael Schwochert, a retired USDA veterinarian in Ft. Morgan, Colo., agreed with that, saying the USDA's sparse testing means they cannot say with any confidence whether there are additional cases or not.

"It scares the hell out of me what it's going to do to the cattle industry," Schwochert said. "This could be catastrophic."

Other BSE animals?

In addition, former USDA veterinarians told UPI they have long suspected the disease was in U.S herds and there are probably additional infected animals.

"It's always concerned me that they haven't used the same rapid testing technique that's used in Europe," where mad cow has been detected in several additional countries outside of the United Kingdom, said Schwochert.

According to the UPI report, Schwochert noted that he had been informed that about six months ago a cow displaying symptoms suggestive of mad cow disease showed up at the Excel slaughtering plant in Ft. Morgan.

"It was almost like they didn't want to find mad cow disease," Schwochert said.

Once cows are unloaded off the truck they are required to be inspected by USDA veterinarians. However, the cow was spotted by plant employees before USDA officials saw it and "it went back out on a special truck and they called the guys in the office and said don't say anything about this," UPI reported Schwochert as saying.

[Maple Leaf Angus]

Someone somewhere in the US has one heck of a lot of influence in the USDA and/or meat/cattle industry in order to keep this "clean image" fascade up for so long.

All that they are doing is keeping a huge amount of pent up energy in check until it reaches a critical mass. When that point is reached, the explosion will be so big that it will likelycause irreparable harm to the cattle/beef industry in North America.

Acchhh, don't worry. Keep up the protectionist rhetoric and crap. Bury your heads deeper in the sand.