Leahy: Mad Cow Case Spotlights Need
To Remove Sick Animals From Human Food Chain

…Calls On Bush Administration To End Its Opposition To Downed Animal Bill

(Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2003) -- Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) says he and others will renew efforts to pass their bill to remove “downer” animals from the human food chain when Congress reconvenes in January.

The Washington State animal with confirmed bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or “mad cow disease,” was a downed animal that would not have entered the human food chain if the Downed Animal Act were law.

Downed livestock, or “downer” animals, are sick or injured and are unable to stand or walk unassisted.   Often they are dragged with chains and trucked several states away for slaughter.  A large majority of non-ambulatory animals slaughtered for human consumption are also contaminated with fecal matter, the main cause of salmonella poisoning. 

The Senate has twice passed the Downed Animal Act in the last two years, but the White House each time worked to kill it in House-Senate conferences.  Leahy led in including the measure in last year’s farm bill.  This year, the Senate approved it as part of its version of the annual budget bill for the Department of Agriculture, the Fiscal Year 2004 Agriculture Appropriations Act.  The Downed Animal Act was removed from the final versions of those bills at the White House’s insistence.  The current agriculture appropriations bill – now without the Downed Animal Act -- has passed the House as part of the omnibus appropriations bill and is pending final Senate action when the Congress reconvenes in late January.  Leahy said he and others intend to bring the Downed Animal Act to a vote, either by restoring it to the appropriations bill if Republican leaders allow negotiations on the omnibus package, as stand-alone legislation, or as an amendment to another legislative vehicle.

The bill is sponsored by Sen. Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii), Leahy, and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).

The Akaka-Leahy-Boxer bill would set a uniform nationwide standard to euthanize downed animals and remove them from the processing line for products consumed by humans, removing economic incentives to put these animals into the human food chain.

Leahy says the bill is good for consumers and for the U.S. livestock industry, and it would mean more humane treatment of downed animals.  “For the sake of consumers and for the sake of the confidence we need the public and the world to have in U.S. agriculture, taking sick animals out of the human food chain is sensible and practical, and it is something we can do immediately.  If our bill was law today, the infected animal in Washington State never would have been put into the food chain in the first place.”

“This mad cow case has thrown a spotlight on this problem and on the Bush Administration’s efforts to block higher standards,” Leahy continued.  “The Senate keeps passing our bill, and the White House keeps taking it out in back room deals with the special interests.  It’s time for the White House to end its obstruction of the downed animals bill.  The President needs to work with us to put this sensible consumer protection into law.”

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