BSE: Born, Slaughtered, Erased

Mad cow disease is back in the headlines, with officials confirming a new case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) at an Essex farm. Predictably, government agencies immediately reassured the public, promising there's "no risk" to food safety or human health. But let's cut through the standard industry script and confront the uncomfortable truth: as long as animals are commodified, disease and death will always be part of the package.

This latest victim, described dismissively as a single "atypical" case, was culled after exhibiting symptoms. "Atypical" BSE, officials stress, is spontaneous, naturally occurring, and non-contagious. But what they conveniently gloss over is the brutal reality underlying this event, another animal whose life and death were controlled entirely by human use and profit motives.

Chief veterinary officer Christine Middlemiss claims this case proves the effectiveness of surveillance systems. But surveillance does nothing to address the root cause. Animals kept as commodities exist solely to produce flesh, milk, and profit. Disease outbreaks are inevitable because animals forced into unnatural lives of intensive breeding and confinement suffer impaired immunity and chronic stress. To pretend that periodic disease detection somehow represents a successful system is absurdly short-sighted.

Historical perspective only underscores the horror. The UK’s 1986 BSE crisis resulted in 180,000 infected cattle and the mass slaughter of 4.4 million others. Thousands of animals' lives ended, not to mention human lives lost through Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), a devastating and fatal condition linked directly to consuming infected animal products. The parallels drawn between mad cow disease and kuru, a disease contracted by humans consuming the brains of deceased relatives, should offer a chilling lesson. And yet, society continues to overlook the stark similarities, remaining wilfully blind to the risks of eating animals.

The industry’s assurances are also conveniently silent about the countless other diseases directly tied to animal use and consumption. Coronary artery disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, and severe bacterial infections like salmonella, campylobacter, and E.coli O157:H7, all conditions overwhelmingly linked to diets heavy in animal flesh and excretion. The authorities claim rigorous measures protect public health, but making meat "safe" is fundamentally impossible because the very practice of consuming animals is inherently risky.

Ironically, governments ban feeding animal remains to livestock to prevent disease outbreaks like BSE, yet enthusiastically promote the consumption of these very animal remains to humans. It's a grotesque contradiction that highlights the arbitrary, self-serving boundaries drawn by an industry that prioritises profit over life, human and non-human alike.

This latest BSE case isn’t just a brief headline, it’s a reminder of the pervasive violence and health risks inherent in the commodification of animals. Surveillance systems, "humane" culling, and food safety protocols are merely symptoms of a deeper moral sickness: the exploitation of animals for human convenience and profit. Until society confronts and dismantles this injustice, diseases like mad cow will continue to emerge, reminding us that animal exploitation is not only morally indefensible but fundamentally dangerous.