1. Education

You and Your Cat and Mad Cow Disease

It's a Mad, Mad World

From Eve Riser-Roberts, Ph.D.

The following article has been written by Eve Riser-Roberts (January 17, 2004), a Microbiologist with a Ph.D. from the University of London, England, where she specialized in hospital epidemiology -- the spread of disease in hospitals.

Dr. Riser-Roberts worked in medical and scientific research in England, Germany, and the U.S. for over 20 years. She has published two technical books dealing with how to clean up the environment from petroleum contamination. Dr. Riser-Roberts developed a technique for identifying over 60 variations of a particular bacterium and used it to track down the source of epidemics in hospitals where she worked. She has also established laboratory capabilities for detection of Legionnaire's Disease and other human pathogens. She has conducted an extensive literature review for the information in this article.

Introduction

If the remains of dead or sick cattle are unacceptable for human consumption, it’s all right to put them into pet food. If the pets die, it’s all right to use their remains for cattle feed (5, 6, 18). If these cattle go to the slaughterhouse, it’s all right for humans to eat them (18).

Not only are you indirectly consuming the dead and sick animals that were not considered healthy for you in the first place and picking up microorganisms, hormones, and antibiotics in the process, but you are also indirectly eating your pets. How?

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