Beef, its what's for dinner

             The Masai are a tribe of people who herd cattle in eastern Africa. They are a simple people who graze by day and protect by night. To a Masai a cow is his or her most valuable possession. In a Masai tribe when a fellow tribesman is in trouble giving a cow is the greatest way to show sympathy and gratitude towards one another. In June 2002, a Masai tribe from a remote village in Kenya gave 14 cows to the people of the United States. The tribe gave the cows to help America recover from the September 11 terrorist attacks. The cows were accepted by the U.S. Embassy in Kenya but because the animals would be difficult to ship to the U.S. they were sold. The funds were used to buy Masai jewelry, which will then be displayed at a September 11 memorial in New York City (Holy Cow). Cattle are a very important commodity around the world and especially the United States of America. Why are Canadians allowed to ship its cattle into our country? Recent discoveries of BSE also known as "mad cow" disease in Canada will soon stricken the American cattle industry as we know it, and the economy, if the importing of cattle does not stop. The U.S. government should implement COOL to prevent further outbreaks in the U.S. or just eliminate imports from entering the U.S. all together.
             "Cattle prices have fallen sharply and none of more than thirty nations that have required import bans on U.S. beef are reportedly moving to ease their restrictions. The controls have already cost the U.S. beef industry millions of dollars in exports." (Mekay, 1).
             This is what was heard in December 2003 when a single BSE-infected cow was discovered in Washington state. U.S. officials say that the animal was likely purchased from our northern neighbor, Canada.
             "France, which has only a fraction of the U.S. cattle population, tests more cattle in a single week than the U.S. has tested in a decade." (Mekay, 1).
             Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is a slowly progressive, degenerative, fatal disease affecting the central nervous system of adult cattle.