From: Hazkat123@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2000 3:19 PM
To: FDADockets@oc.fda.gov
Subject: Docket # 98P-0151/CP1 Downed animal trade

US FDA Dockets Management Branch

RE: Docket # 98P-0151/CP1

    Please grant the Farm Sanctuary petition to prohibit the slaughter of 
downed animals.  
    First, downed animals are a symptom of the inhumane treatment and 
mishandling of the animals before slaughter.  If this inhumanity would be 
corrected, there would be few if any downed animals to deal with.  Downed 
animals are merely an extension of the cruelty and barbaric conditions 
surrounding the slaughter industry.  Once an animal becomes a downer, it is 
brutalized even more, pushed with tractors or dragged with chains, sometimes 
left to die on heaps of carcasses.  Those that make it into the slaughter 
house most certainly pose a risk for bacterial contamination and Mad Cow 
Disease.  Animals that are too sick or injured to stand should not be 
permitted to enter the human food chain.  No slaughter house is going to go 
out of business because of any prohibition of the marketing of downed animals 
since they are a small percentage of animals slaughtered.  Any slaughter 
house that has a high percentage of downers needs to be investigated for 
excessive inhumane treatment of its animals.  Actually no animals with 
horrendous diseases such as cancer or Mad Cow Disease should be permitted 
into any food chain including dog food, cat food, or reprocessed into farm 
animal feed.  
    No intelligent culture feeds disease to anything that is part of its food 
chain.  No amount of profit justifies that kind of thinking or action.  
Please grant the prohibition of the slaughter of downed animals.  Thank you.

Sincerely,

C. E. Hazzard
Harrisburg, Pa. 17112