You know i was considering a post like this… you beat me to it. however if america can come up with conclusive proof that it came from canada (but come on guys whats the likelyhood of that?) then i will be willing to change my stance.
I have seen no “blame Canada” rhetoric in the U.S., so it would seem that your ire is misdirected.
The current claim is that the single cow that has been found to be infected was part of a sale of 74 (64?) cows purchased from a Canadian supplier a couple of years ago.
Given the cow’s currently estimated age (which was older than that originally reported), it would seem that the cow could have become infected prior to the controls that both the U.S. and Canada have placed on feed processing.
So the current claim is that one individual animal that was purchased from Canada may have become infected at a time that neither the U.S. nor Canada had sufficient controls on the food chain regarding BSE.
Hardly “blaming” Canada. It sounds as though the officials simply want to track down the source of the problem and they will need Cnadian assistance to complete their analysis.
I’d be more impressed if you scanned some articles about this from some of our newspapers, 'cause this is the first I’ve heard of any anti-Canadian sentiment over the issue.
Apparently, it is believed that the infected cow came from a group of 74 that crossed the border. The USDA is also take another look at a proposal to reopen the border to young Canadian cattle. The only real conclusion we can get from this article is that the Canadian Beef Industry is not in great shape.
Have we hit the motherlode of anti-American righteous indignation in the last few days? We’ve had a series of shrill, aggrieved, and incredibly lame-ass rants about mad-cow disease, Time magazine, Fox News and the Iran earthquake, and the President’s (perceived) lack of instant reaction to the earthquake.
Unless BSE arises spontaneously, it should be possible to track down the source. Alberta did have a case early in 2003 (http://www.cbc.ca/news/indepth/background/madcow.html). It caused a lot of economic devastation in Canada’s beef industry – possibly the cause of the OP’s angst. So it’s not * totally * unreasonable to think that the cases might be related, if this cow did indeed originate in Canada. But I’m at a loss to figure out why trying to track the origin of this cow makes us “finger-pointing, arse-kissing, POLITICAL-COCKSUCKING spineless cunts.”
I haven’t even heard anything about finger-pointing to the north, at least not in any malevolent, let’s find a scapegoat kind of way. See, tracking SARS to China does not necessarily mean the US hates Chinese, it’s a real science called epidemiology. Its kinda important for containment. :o Oh yeah, right back atcha sweetheart.
I think you may have missed the point. Beavers are a symbol of sorts, of Canada. He was referring to an animal in this case, while making a play on words.
