Farmers won't lose much on 'downed' cow slaughter ban

By Jonathan Martin
Seattle Times staff reporter

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A new federal ban on slaughtering sick or lame cows for human consumption is likely to be a small financial hit for farmers, who make less than $100 per "downed" animal.

Just 200,000 of the 35 million cattle slaughtered last year were downers, most of them aging dairy cows hobbled by injury or disease. The ban is expected to apply to any cow that can't rise without assistance from a "recumbent" position.

Both recent cases of mad-cow disease in North America — a beef cow found in Alberta in May, and a Holstein from Mabton in Yakima County detected last week — were classified as downers, bolstering suspicion that those cattle present the most risk for human health.

A study by veterinarians at the University of California, Davis, found that at least one in 10 downer cows had salmonella.

A USDA study published in August reported that downer cows are 3.3 times more likely than healthy cows to have the type of E. coli infection that sickens 73,000 people and kills 60 people a year.

And USDA records obtained by a New York animal-rights group show that downers with abscesses, gangrene, lymphoma and pneumonia were approved for human consumption.

For the dairy industry, sick and injured cows are nearly worthless, according to a survey by the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Farmers received an average of $29 for each downer that left farms in that state in 1995 and 1996.

Those 14,300 downer cows generated just $410,000 of the $3.7 billion California dairy industry, according to the survey.

In Western Washington, there is no market for downer cows, said Larry Stap, a Lynden dairy farmer in Whatcom County and president of the 700-member Washington State Dairy Federation.

Stap said he has two options when one of his cows becomes sick or injured: Pay a rendering plant $75 to dispose of the animal, or have it shipped to Vern's Moses Lake Meats, the only Washington slaughterhouse willing to accept downers. Vern's slaughtered the infected cow from Mabton.

The cost of trucking a cow to Moses Lake is prohibitive when balanced against the $50 to $100 Vern's pays for a downer, Stap said.

"It's kinda sad," he said. "Downed cows are probably some of the most heavily inspected cows that ever arrive at a slaughter. I'd say downed cows are in some ways safer than a standing cow."

Despite the small price farmers receive for a downer at the slaughterhouse, the dairy industry successfully lobbied Congress against a bill earlier this year that would have banned downer cows in the human food chain.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and others in Congress said yesterday they would introduce legislation to make the USDA's ban permanent. Beef industry groups mostly supported the government's sweeping reforms as a means to end worldwide embargoes on U.S. beef.

The downer cow ban mirrors Canada's action after the May case in Alberta. The European Union, home to nearly all human cases of mad-cow disease, also bans downer cows for human consumption, according to the Christian Science Monitor.

The dairy industry's earlier resistance to such a ban baffles Gene Bauston, president of Farm Sanctuary.

His not-for-profit animal-protection organization sued the USDA in 1998 to stop the slaughter of downer cows, arguing those animals were the most likely carriers of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad-cow disease. The USDA fought the lawsuit with the argument that there were no cases of BSE in the United States.

Bauston said yesterday's downer cow ban may encourage farmers to provide better care for their herds.

"Keeping animals healthy and walking is better for the farmer, and certainly better for the animal," he said. "This is sending the signal that these animals are no longer marketable" as downers.

J. Patrick Boyle, president of the American Meat Institute, agreed. The prohibition on slaughtering non-ambulatory cows may "encourage producers to market their animals earlier and in better condition," Boyle said.

He said the institute would not fight the downer cow ban, or other sweeping changes announced by the USDA.

Before those new regulations, downed cows could be slaughtered and processed before their tests for mad-cow disease were completed. Now, suspect carcasses will be held pending test results.

But beef and dairy industry officials said the ban may undermine the USDA's detection system for mad-cow disease.

USDA veterinarians are supposed to inspect each downed cow, determining if it is fit for slaughter or must be tested for BSE.

Now, those cows most likely will be sent for rendering or buried on a farm. Frank Hendrix, a cattleman and a Washington State University extension agent in Yakima, said the Mabton mad-cow case probably wouldn't have been detected under the new downer ban.

"If that animal would be shot and buried, we wouldn't have as safe a food supply as we do now," he said.

Staff reporter Susan Keheller, news researcher Gene Balk and Knight Ridder Newspapers contributed to this report. Jonathan Martin: 206-464-2605 or jmartin@seattletimes.com

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