From: NANCWILLIS@aol.com
Sent: Sunday, February 25, 2001 12:18 PM
To: FDADockets@oc.fda.gov
Subject: Docket # 98P-0151/CP1

I am writing to support this and any action to PROHIBIT THE SLAUGHTER OF 
DOWNED ANIMALS.  What I've seen is incredibly cruel and if you saw it you 
would not be able to ignore it.  Poor sick and injured animals that already 
cannot stand and who are already in pain are beaten, dragged, shoved with a 
forklift and otherwise tortured.  Their skin is torn, their limbs are broken, 
all while they are conscious. That is my major concern, preventing this 
torture.  However, those animals should not enter the human food chain 
either.  There is increase risk of bacterial contamination and a form of 
bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cows disease).  

Prohibiting their marketing would cause no undue economic hardship as they 
are a small percentage of the total numbers of animals sold.  In fact, 
removing the market for downed animals would encourage better treatment and 
handling, thus preventing most downers in the first place.
  
In South Dakota, a downed cow was dumped alive into a cart full of garbage. 
In New York, a day-old calf was dragged into a stockyard by his ears. 
In Pennsylvania, a living sheep was dumped on a stockyard "dead pile." 
In Texas, a cow with a broken back was abandoned at an auction. 
In Minnesota, incapacitated pigs were left in pens, and slowly starved to 
death

It is essential that the FDA grant Docket # 98P-0151/CP1. 
Thank you in advance