US FIGHTS MAD COW DISEASE WITH PR, NOT PREVENTION

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US FIGHTS MAD COW DISEASE WITH PR, NOT PREVENTION

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17466

 

The United States has spent millions of dollars on PR convincing

Americans that mad cow could never happen here, and now the US

Department of Agriculture is engaged in a crisis management plan

that has federal and state officials, livestock industry flacks,

scientists and other trusted experts assuring the public that this

is no big deal.

 

Their litany of falsehoods include statements that

a " firewall " feed ban has been in place in the United States since

1997, that muscle meat is not infective, that no slaughterhouse

waste is fed to cows, that the United States tests adequate numbers

of cattle for mad cow disease, that quarantines and meat recalls

are just an added measure of safety, that the risks of this

mysterious killer are miniscule, that no one in the United States

has ever died of any such disease, and on and on.

 

The latest spin is to blame the United States mad cow crisis on Canada.

SOURCE: Alternet.org, December 30.2003

 

More web links related to this story are available at:

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/December_2003.html#1072842224

To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1072842224

 

 

 

 

 

 

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