Watching the World
Britain's outbreak of "mad cow disease" has brought
a long standing fact of animal husbandry to the fore.
Animals have been changed from natural herbivores to carnivores by being fed
parts of other animals. Dried blood, crushed bone, and meat meal, or feed
that includes ground up intestines, spinal cords, brains, and other internal
organs, such as the pancreas, trachea, and kidneys, are routinely used in an
effort to conserve resources, increase profitability, and accelerate animal
growth.
By the time the average calf reaches the age of six months, he has been fed
about 26 pounds of food made from the remnants of other animals, says Dr.
Harash Narang, one of the experts who first raised as alarm about the disease.
"I was astonished," he said, referring to his visit to a slaughterhouse.
"We were actually recycling cattle to cattle. To me that's cannibalism."
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