I forget the details exactly, but I remember reading a report about beast (cows/bulls) being fed back to their own kind via dried feed. It was, if I remember correctly, in a specialist publication that deals with world conservation and publishes 'the truth' about the economy vs the planet. Unfortunately I cannot bring its name to mind however hard I try!

However, Im in the UK. Maybe there are different practices in different continents, I know not.

I live very close to the Roman wall, as in Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland, England. In 2001 we were decimated here with the Foot and mouth outbreak, with piles and piles of murdered livestock being set alite (almost all healthy) like they were nothing, being culled in an attempt to curb the outbreak. It was at that time that I came across the report, as naturally such things were at the forefront of people's minds because of the carnage around them.

I daily walk my dogs past a field where sheep are regularly grazed. THe farmer weekly dumps the contents of the septic tanks that he emptys at cut price in that same field. Today a sizeable flock of redwings were feeding there.

It is this sort of practice, along with such exploding industries like the intensive farming of livestock, that keeps me from raising any eyebrows at diseases such as BSE, bird flu, superbugs, and such like.

WHat else can we expect?

And before I have you all reaching for a noose (!), you will be glad to know that Northumberland's fields are repopulated with beautiful healthy livestock, pheasants and grouse graze my lawn, buzzards and goshawks swell in numbers, the deer are still pruning my shrubs for me, and wild rabbits keep my lawn clipped. A true idyll. BUt knowledge is power, and this particular knowlege keeps me to organic meat, free range locally laid eggs, home made yoghurt, and a habit of reading the labels.


Fiona

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