| 11/6/2003 Senate OKs Ban on 'Downed' Animals - 11/5 AP Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, who offered the amendment to an agriculture spending bill, said many of these animals are dying from infectious diseases and present a significant pathway for the spread of disease. ``My amendment prevents downed animals from being approved for consumption at our dinner tables,'' he said. The Senate approved the measure by a voice vote. The House, in passing its version of the spending bill for the 2004 budget year, defeated a similar amendment on a 202-199 vote. The two chambers must negotiate a common stance on the issue when they meet to come up with a final bill. The Agriculture Department estimates that 130,000 such downed animals are slaughtered every year. Farmers usually sell their sick and injured animals to meat renderers who grind them up into pet food and animal feed. But Akaka said that meat and meat products from downed livestock can still be used for human consumption if the animals pass the inspection process. His amendment would bar the Agriculture Department from spending money to approve downed animals for human consumption. Beef producers have expressed concerns that prohibiting the sale of downed animals will result in their having to find other ways to dispose of sick livestock, most likely by burying them on their farms. They say this could threaten the health of other animals if the carcasses are infected with a contagious disease. But Wayne Pacelle, senior vice president of the Human Society of the United States, said the amendment was ``an important animal protection and food safety measure.'' He noted that the recent case of mad cow disease in Canada involved a downed cow. In other action, the Senate rejected an amendment offered by Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn., to provide some $6.3 billion in emergency relief for Western and Midwestern farmers hit by prolonged drought. Opponents said they could not accept the extra spending without parallel cuts in other programs. The Senate was to continue work Thursday on the $79.7 billion bill, which includes more than $62 billion for mandated spending on crop subsidies, land conservation and nutrition programs. ___ On the Net: Information on the bill, H.R. 2673, can be found at http://thomas.loc.gov/ Related Link: http://www.ap.org |
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