Legal Petition

[Guest guest]

IT's FINALLY HAPPENING TERRY!!!!!!

To Everyone:

I received this information tonight from Stauber (Mad Cow USA author) who

has been very helpful in obtaining this petition. Hansen (Consumers

Union) and Joe Mendelson (attorney) were also involved. Thanks is also due to

the Humane Farming Association for funding the petition. Note Paragraph 7.

The story will appear in USA Today tomorrow, January 7. It will be on the

front page of the international edition, but don't know where it will be in

the U.S. edition -- but it will be there......................Pat

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE THURSDAY, JAN. 7, 1999

MEDIA CONTACT:

ANDREW KIMBRELL, D'ARCY KEMNITZ, ATTORNEYS AT CENTER FOR FOOD SAFETY

LEGAL ACTIONS FILED TO FORCE FDA, CDC, TO COMBAT 'MAD COW' TYPE DISEASES IN

PEOPLE, WILDLIFE AND LIVESTOCK IN THE UNITED STATES.

TERMINALLY ILL UTAH HUNTER, AGE 30, COULD BE THE FIRST VICTIM OF U.S. 'MAD

DEER' DISEASE.

'MAD COW' TYPE DISEASES ARE ALREADY KILLING PEOPLE, DEER, ELK AND SHEEP IN

THE U.S.

Washington, DC -- Today, Thursday, January 7, 1999, two formal legal

petitions were filed demanding that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) act immediately to monitor,

regulate and prevent 'mad cow' type diseases in the United States. These

diseases, known as Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies, or TSEs, are

killing people, deer, elk and sheep in the United States. Petitioners

include the Humane Farming Association, the Center for Food Safety, a group

of United States CJD victims and their families and consumer, farm and

animal protectionists.

The demand for immediate government action is given added urgency by the

extremely unusual case of a thirty-year old Utah man, R. McEwen,

who is now terminally ill with CJD, a 'mad cow' type disease in humans.

Mr. McEwen hunted deer and elk; it is feared he may have contracted CJD by

eating or handling deer or elk infected with 'mad deer' disease.

Additionally, there is industry and governmental concern that as a frequent

donor Mr. McEwen may have contaminated blood products internationally.

Mr. McEwen and his wife Tracie are petitioners in today's legal actions.

His fatal disease underscores concerns that current federal regulations are

grossly inadequate to prevent and monitor potential animal and human

epidemics in the United States.

The family of 'mad cow' type disease, TSEs, include numerous strains and

have different names in different species. The best known strain is

British Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), dubbed 'mad cow disease,'

which has now spread into the British human population as 'new variant

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease' or nvCJD. So far 33 teenagers or young adults

are confirmed dead or dying of nvCJD. Since the disease has a virtually

invisible incubation period that might last decades, it won't be known for

many years whether the final toll will be in the dozens, hundreds or

thousands of human lives.

In the United States efforts to identify, monitor and prevent human and

animal deaths from TSE diseases have been grossly inadequate, despite the

fact that people, deer, elk and sheep in the U.S. are dying from these

diseases, known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) in people, Chronic

Wasting Disease (CWD) in deer and elk, and scrapie in sheep.

CJD in humans in the U.S. appears to be often misdiagnosed as Alzheimer's

or other types of fatal dementia, and seems much more prevalent than

admitted by government agencies. Given the very long invisible incubation

period of this 100% fatal disease, and that fact that it can be spread by

infected medical instruments and is almost impossible to kill by heat and

disinfection, and the consequences of failing to identify the disease are

extremely serious.

The first legal petition demands that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control

(CDC) aggressively look for CJD in humans and make CJD a reportable and

monitored disease. This petition is also being filed in all fifty states

with the appropriate state health officials.

The second legal petition demands that the Food and Drug Administration

(FDA) close serious loopholes in U.S. animal feed regulations which

currently allow types of cannibalistic feeding practices known to cause and

spread 'mad cow' type diseases in animals and humans. For instance,

current U.S. regulations allow calves to be fed milk replacer containing

cattle blood protein, and pigs to be fed back to pigs and cattle. U.S.

sheep infected with scrapie, a 'mad cow' type disease, can be used for pet

and pig feed in the U.S.

Commenting on today's legal actions Bradley , National Director of

the Humane Farming Association stated, " TSEs represent a potentially

devastating threat to both human and animal health. Our government's

response to date has been shamefully inadequate. These legal actions

provide a blueprint by which federal and state agencies can act decisively

to prevent a TSE epidemic in this country. "

Dr. Hansen, Research Associate of Consumer's Union commented, " The

current increase of TSEs in wildlife and humans shows that the time for

effective prevention may be running out. The federal agencies must

immediately take action to avert what could become a very significant

public health problem. "

Kimbrell, public interest attorney and Director of the Center for

Food Safety stated, " Given what we know now, it is unconscionable that the

CDC is not strictly monitoring this disease, and that the FDA is still

allowing the feeding of blood and other animal by-products to animals. The

federal agencies are obviously putting the interests of agribusiness

companies ahead of their duty to protect the public from this terrible and

fatal group of diseases. We will go to court if necessary to ensure that

the agencies do their job in protecting human health and animal welfare. "

END