Monday September 1, 2008, 11:41 am
Court: US can block mad cow testing
By MATT APUZZO (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
August 29, 2008 12:55 PM EDT

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration can prohibit meat packers from testing their animals for mad cow disease, a U.S. appeals court said Friday.

The dispute pits the Agriculture Department, which tests about 1 percent of cows for the potentially deadly disease, against a Kansas meat packer that wants to test all its animals.

Larger meat packers opposed such testing. If Creekstone Farms Premium Beef began advertising that its cows have all been tested, other companies fear they too will have to conduct the expensive tests.

The Bush administration says the low level of testing reflects the rareness of the disease. Mad cow disease has been linked to more than 150 human deaths worldwide, mostly in Britain. Only three cases have been reported in the U.S., all involving cows, not humans.

A federal judge ruled last year that Creekstone must be allowed to conduct the test because the Agriculture Department can only regulate disease "treatment." Since there is no cure for mad cow disease and the test is performed on dead animals, the judge ruled, the test is not a treatment.

The U.S. Court of Appeals overturned that ruling, saying diagnosis can be considered part of treatment.

"And we owe USDA a considerable degree of deference in its interpretation of the term," Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson wrote.

The case was sent back to the district court, where Creekstone can make other arguments.

Monday September 1, 2008, 11:45 am
There's a REALLY quick and easy fix for this: put an end to the sick, inhumane practice of factory farming and slaughtering.

Monday September 1, 2008, 12:52 pm
Absolutely pathetic; being penalized for trying to do the right thing.

Monday September 1, 2008, 12:54 pm
I was curious as to who this Judge Henderson is. The first link that I found had this:

In she 2008 ruled that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a statute that applies by its terms to all “persons” did not apply to detainees at Guantánamo, effectively ruling that the detainees are not persons for purposes of U.S. law.
Also, The Court also dismissed the detainees’ claims under the Alien Tort Statute and the Geneva Conventions, finding defendants immune on the basis that “torture is a foreseeable consequence of the military’s detention of suspected enemy combatants,” and ruled that even if torture and religious abuse were illegal, defendants were immune under the Constitution because they could not have reasonably known that detainees at Guantánamo had any constitutional rights.
http://presscue.com/node/39281

I am not going to look any more, I've seen enough. So much for "the Balance of Power"

Monday September 1, 2008, 1:07 pm
Wow, Sidney, I didn't even think about looking up Henderson. Thanks for the info!

Monday September 1, 2008, 1:10 pm
Another thing here that really bothers me: I'm not the world's biggest fan of capitalism, but that is the system we live under in the US. This ruling flies in the face of capitalism. The small company is providing a better product/service. Under capitalism, the ones that aren't doing that either emulate the company that is doing better, or they go under. Why is our government punishing a company that is not only providing a better product, but also protecting the public? Sounds like hypocrisy on the part of that judge, at least.

Monday September 1, 2008, 1:13 pm

This is just another way Bush & Co can kill humanity. There is no cure for mad cow disease, it just kills you!

Thank you Michelle P. and Sidney Toups for that information on henderson.

Monday September 1, 2008, 1:27 pm
One more reason for going vegetarian or vegan... and for voting Obama!!

Monday September 1, 2008, 6:39 pm
this may Fly in the face of Traditional "Democratic Free market capitolism;"
However it is Totaly In Line with the Eletist Big Biz Croneyism, the Monopolising of the Market place by Big Corporations in Collusion with The Corrupt Scum the Pretends to Be Our Representatives.!..

Monday September 1, 2008, 6:49 pm
I agree, Rod!