We Should All Turn Vegetarian!

[AntiClock]

If you eat meat, you already have to worry about salmonella, E. coli, campylobacter, heart disease, strokes, high blood pressure, and cancer, as well as your weight. Now, add mad cow disease to the list. The U.S. government has announced that a dairy cow in Washington state was infected with mad cow disease, also called bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Newspapers report that meat from the cow, who was killed December 9, traveled through three processing plants before the problem was discovered 13 days later.

What Is Mad Cow Disease?

BSE is caused by malformed proteins called prions. Researchers have traced recent outbreaks of the disease to farmers’ cost-cutting practice of mixing bits of dead sheep’s neural tissue into the feed of cows, who are naturally herbivorous. If cows eat the brains of other cows who already have BSE or of sheep suffering from a sheep disease called scrapie, the animals can develop mad cow disease. When people eat the infected cattle, they could develop the human version of the disease, new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (nvCJD).

Doesn’t the government protect the meat supply?

Because the infected cow was raised for dairy production, she had lived long enough to show symptoms of the disease. Most cows are killed before they turn 2 years old, and before they become symptomatic; no one would know whether they were infected with spongy brain disease. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) admits that it only tested about 20,000 cows for BSE last year—a statistically insignificant percentage of the approximately 40 million cows slaughtered annually.

The dangerous practice of feeding sheep and even cows to other cows was not banned in the U.S. and Canada until 1997, and the U.S. government said that as recently as 2001, there was widespread violation of the feeding regulation. It is still legal to feed sheep and cows to pigs and chickens and to feed pigs and chickens to one another and to cows, even though these practices have been banned in Europe, and no one can be sure that they won’t also prove to be deadly.

Other forms of brain encephalopathies have been found in North America. In May, an 8-year-old cow on a dairy farm in Alberta, Canada, was found to have BSE. Two years ago, 200 sheep raised for dairy on a Vermont farm were killed on suspicion that they were infected with their species’ equivalent of mad cow disease. Chronic wasting disease, a similar condition, is widespread in deer and elk in Western Canada and the U.S. and is suspected of infecting hunters who may have eaten meat from sick animals.

Since brain encephalopathies have been found in cats, dogs, sheep, mink, deer, and elk, as well as in cows and people, you may not be protecting yourself by avoiding beef alone. When there are so many delicious vegetarian alternatives available at virtually every restaurant and grocery store, why gamble?

Can You Protect Yourself?

Yes! The best way to protect yourself and your family is to stop eating animal products and choose a healthy vegan diet. A vegan diet not only protects you from mad cow disease, but is the most effective way to prevent foodborne illness, heart disease, strokes, and many other ailments. Click here for a FREE vegetarian starter kit to help you get started.

[Spike-J-Wolfwood]

This is all I have to say about that......

[Livecorpse]

At 12/25/03 07:47 AM, Spike_J_Wolfwood wrote: This is all I have to say about that......

Excellennt, Smithers...

[nafs]

You can eat my shit and worry about E. coli.

[bumcheekcity]

I like meat. I dont care if i die from eating infected beefburgers or something.Theres been one case in America for about 10 years. Big deal.

[Livecorpse]

At 12/25/03 08:32 AM, bumcheekcity wrote: I like meat. I dont care if i die from eating infected beefburgers or something.Theres been one case in America for about 10 years. Big deal.

Yes, theres a reason that certain essential nutrients can only be found in animal products. that alone should say something about the necessity of including them in our diet.

For me, happiness is a big ham sandwich with eggs and mayonnaise... with sauerkraut. yes, that would be swell.

[Akula]

Meat is a must. meat is healthy... if you look around most of the veggy's die earlier then meat eaters. and i had the mad cow desease in holland and it's not dangerous for ppl althouw do watch for a stamp that it has een checked cuz one man stil died because of it cuz the virus mutated.

[Eskimo-Dan]

Jesus...too much fuss is put out over this vegeterian thing. Hows this for a deal. Im gonna eat as much meat as I want, and if Im ever 'reincarnated' as a cow or Whatever, Ill officially let YOU EAT ME. Hows that for a deal?

[Rook]

I could never be a veg. Im far to carnivorous. I get hungry watching Night of the Living Dead. :D

[Sir-Davey]

I hate ecologists and vegetarians. They are of no use and just annoy us by trying to make us eat brocoli burgers and crap.

[KuroiNeko]

*doesn't read the long post*

Um... no we shouldn't

I WIN!

[AntiTanner]

My brother is vegan, eats less than me, and pays twice as much for his stuff. It doesnt make economic sense for me.

[bumcheekcity]

It's not like being a veggie controlls your weight or anything useful like that. I know plenty of fat veggies.

[AntiClock]

OK.

The second best alternative: cannibalism.

[GR67]

vegetarian hah! MEAT ALL THE WAY

forks/spoons are for wimps i like the ribs mmmm ribs .....

[LethalDosage]

Then the whole world would be over populated with chickens and cows and pigs then what would we do huh!

[LethalDosage]

!again im the the last person to post this is really pissin me off

[bumcheekcity]

At 12/25/03 09:23 AM, GR67 wrote: vegetarian hah! MEAT ALL THE WAY

forks/spoons are for wimps i like the ribs mmmm ribs .....

True. Hands are gods natural cutlery.

[KuroiNeko]

The best way to protect yourself is to comit suicide.

[MetaphorcE]

At 12/25/03 07:38 AM, AntiClock wrote: If you eat meat, you already have to worry about...

If you go down the street, you have to worry about being hit by a bus.... no wait, that's not actually that likely to happen. just like getting food poisoning is not that likely - more likely, but less fatal.

to make a life style choice based on a single sketchy news report is just stupid.

[Ambyth]

Actually, it has been proven many and many a time that the best diet is the Palaeolithic diet. As we all evolved we naturally started eating different things. Our ability to develop tools to help us enabled our bodies to develop a system where meat and vegetables are easy to digest. Shocking isn’t it that our bodies would EVOLVE to eat meat. The diet was meat, loads and loads of fruit and veg, preferably raw. As well as stuff like milk and eggs and so on.

The only draw back is of course, that we have to have the same amount of exercise as a Palaeolithic man which I dare say most of us don’t.

[LethalDosage]

o yea not the laast person to post

[broken-guitar]

I've tryed once but I cannot resist a great piece of blooding meat, it's delicious and well, here in Brazil we just don't have any problems with our cowns (I mean th real cowns not bitchs hehehe), and if you search you won't find any problems with mad cown here (yet).

Anyway I hope you'll get a sollution for it there in US. Good luck!

[SuperDragon]

i eat my salad everyday =)

[Admiral8Q]

Well, I'm a canivorouse plant!

[leeboy105]

One of the main factors of human evolution was the consumption of meat. It allowed our brians to grow larger and thus, become more intelligent. Without meat, we would probably be more primitive and not fully be evolved yet.

[Miggles]

Sorry, I need my daily 10 pound meat intake. Even if meat became totally unedible, I'd still kill the same amount of animals it takes to feed a country, just to piss you guys off.

[Faithhammer]

At 12/25/03 07:47 AM, Spike_J_Wolfwood wrote: This is all I have to say about that......

Spike has the right Idea. PETA=People eating tasty animals

[78]

i recently made a bet with my sister (shes been a vegetarian for almost eight years) that i could be a veggetarian for a month......starting new years i love animals and always have felt a little guilty but meant just tastes so good.....if they can create a meat substitute that tastes as good and holds all the same nutritional value i will be more than happy to becom a vegetarian

[gunsarefun]

At 12/25/03 11:01 AM, leeboy105 wrote: One of the main factors of human evolution was the consumption of meat. It allowed our brians to grow larger and thus, become more intelligent. Without meat, we would probably be more primitive and not fully be evolved yet.

its all tru i saw it on TV

oh and i if i get sick for eating meat oh well and if die from meat oh well but i will never be a vegi ...... meat all the WAY !!