BS…Eh
So, it seems the great US of A finally got its own case of BSE. Or, rather, it seems that they finally admitted to it. I say, Good For Them. Maybe the Japanese will shut down all their beef exports like the Yanks did to us a few years back. According to one British expert I heard on the radio (and the Brits are indeed experts on BSE!), this disease arises spontaneously in cattle populations, in approximately 1 in 20,000 head. In 2003, the Americans only tested 20,526 cows out of the 35 million slaughtered. And then they had the nerve to say they were clean! I remember the Brit saying flat out that there was definitely BSE in the States - they just hadn’t found it yet. And now here it is.
Maybe it’s immature, but it is a bit gratifying to see the bully get his come-uppance once in a while. I doubt that even an insignificant number of Canadians will run into the street in jubilation at this news, but I imagine quite a few of us will smile quietly as we read the headlines at Tim Horton’s and think “Yeah, so suck it up, Princess - it’s your turn now.” Between the BSE, the potato ban, and the softwood dispute, our ‘neighbours’ to the south have given us a trade beating for the last decade. Maybe we can’t knock them down and slap them upside the head, but we can at least point our fingers and say “nya nya!”
