Angry Parents to Confront CDFA Over 'Mad Cow' Risk in Kids' School Lunches

It's Mad to Put Children's Health at Risk, Say PETA Parents

For Immediate Release:
May 10, 2012

Contact:
Shakira Croce 202-483-7382 

Sacramento, Calif. -- Under a banner that reads, "Dads Against Meat and Mothers Against Dairy: It's Mad to Gamble With School Lunch Safety," a group of parents from PETA will gather outside the Sacramento headquarters of the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) to distribute information deploring the risk of passing bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or mad cow disease) onto children by including meat and dairy products in school lunches. The parents say leaving meat and dairy products in school lunches is like playing Russian roulette with kids' health because of the following:

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is now expanding its quarantine to a second dairy farm.
• The agency has still not located the infected cow's mother or siblings who may also have the disease and may have entered the food chain.
• Only about 0.1 percent of cows slaughtered annually are tested for the fatal disease.
• The USDA has no idea what the California dairy industry is feeding cows because that's considered a "trade secret."

"The 'mystery' in the cafeteria meat might just be mad cow disease," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman, whose son attends school in California. "With all the dangers associated with meat consumption—from salmonella to E. coli to heart disease to cancer, and now BSE—the best thing that we can do for our kids is to feed them safe and healthy vegan meals."

When:   Friday, May 11, 12 noon 

Where:  CDFA headquarters, 1220 N St. (near the intersection with 12^th Street), Sacramento

Most cows are killed before they turn 2 years old and before they become symptomatic, so it's impossible to know whether they are infected with BSE unless they are one of the few cows who are tested at random. If an infected cow is slaughtered, the tainted meat could cause a degenerative brain disorder, known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, in anyone who ingests it. The disease, which is always fatal, causes sponge-like holes in the brain.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.