Dear Vegans...

[Hooli]

I like to tell them I eat vegan steak, as it grew up just eating grass.

[GSX1400Convert]

I like to tell them I eat vegan steak, as it grew up just eating grass.

Are you sure ............. I seem to remember you blokes in the UK invented Mad Cows Disease, from cattle eating other cattle bits in their feed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwBFkT_KZr8

[Hooli]

Pfft details.

[GSX1400Convert]

Pfft details.

OK......

1986
Cattle in Britain begin to suffer from a condition similar to scrapie in sheep, nicknamed "mad cow disease" due to the behavior of the sick cows.  The cause is unknown, though some suspect the feeding of rendered scrapie-infected sheep to cattle.

1988
421 cattle have been diagnosed with BSE in Britain.

1989
Britain bans human consumption of certain organ meats, including brain and spinal cord.  The U.S. prohibits the import of live cattle, sheep, bison, and goats from countries where BSE is known to exist in native cattle.

Early 1990s
The British government insists the disease poses no threat to humans.  An early advisory committee states that cattle would be a "dead end host."  House cats begin dying from beef byproducts in their pet food.  Five types of antelope die in British zoos from TSEs that had been fed commercial cattle feed.  Through all of this, the British government continues to adamantly insist that British beef is perfectly safe, and BSE is no threat to humans.

1993
120,000 cattle have been diagnosed with BSE in Britain.

Mid-1990s
Britain bans the feeding of meat and bone meal to animals and its use as farm fertilizer, and begins tracking individual animals and testing any cow over 30 months old that is intended for human consumption.

May 1995
Stephen Churchill, 19, becomes the first victim of a new version of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD).  His is one of three vCJD deaths in 1995.

March 1996
British Health Secretary announces to the British House of Commons that mad cow disease is "the most likely explanation at present" for "10 cases of CJD in people aged under 42."  This is the first time the British government admits BSE could be transmitted to humans in a variant form of CJD.  After this point, 4.5 million cattle are destroyed.

Japan bans imports of meat-and-bone animal feed from Britain, while the EU announces a ban on British beef and beef products.

August 1996
Britain's agriculture ministry confirms that mad cow disease can be passed from cow to calf.

British coroner rules that Peter Hall, a 20-year old vegetarian who died of vCJD, contracted it from eating beef burgers as a child.  The verdict is the first to legally link a human death to mad cow disease.

Some estimates are that three British farmers per week are killing themselves.[ii]

July 1997
21 vCJD victims in Britain have been confirmed, many more unconfirmed cases.

August 1997
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) bans protein made from cows, sheep, deer, and other so-called ruminants in feed for other ruminants.

August 1999
The export ban of British beef is lifted after 3½ years.[iii]

[Hooli]

Thanks for that, but it was actually a sarcastic 'pfft'.

[Batkwaka]

I was mooved by it.

[Hooli]

I'd herd you were.

[Milts]

I bet Seth is scratching his head!

Sorry Seth only kidding 

[Hooli]

He's too busy trying to keep warm in the friesian north.

[grog]

Was a bit sheepish to reply. Bullied into it. Didnt want to be a chicken or a lamb to the slaughter. Just hamming it up now, steaking my claim. Really didnt want to seem like a turkey. That would be a cow of a way to have my rump roasted. 

[GSXKING]

@grog are you sure you're not just masticating 

[Kiwifruit]

He was just chewing it over.

[Notty]

My mum told me off for masticating 

[MarkN]

I met a woman today who said she thought she knew me from the local vegan society, but I'd never met herbivore

[Notty]