Diseased cow not a 'downer,' lawmakers told

Now the Moses Lake man says the Holstein killed Dec. 9 at Vern's Moses Lake Meat Co. was a relatively healthy cow, contrary to reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"She was a walker," Louthan said after speaking yesterday before the state House and Senate agriculture committees.

He says he was laid off two weeks after killing the cow, after he told television crews that the cow had already been eaten.

One day after the Dec. 23 announcement that a cow from a Mabton dairy had tested positive for mad cow disease, USDA officials said the cow was a so-called downer -- an animal too sick or weak to walk by itself.

USDA spokesman Steven Cohen said the cow had been injured during calving and was lying down when an inspector checked it at the slaughterhouse.

"In the opinion of the veterinarian that examined the animal, that was a non-ambulatory animal," Cohen said. That conclusion -- that the cow was a downer -- prompted the testing for mad cow disease.

Cohen was unsure whether Louthan had killed the cow in question.

Louthan insists that the cow could walk on its own and wouldn't have been tested had he not killed it outside the slaughterhouse, prompting automatic testing under a plant policy.

"It got caught because I was in a hurry," Louthan said, calling the test "a fluke."

Louthan shot the animal outdoors because he feared it would trample other cows, he said.

Of the roughly 9,500 cows Louthan killed during 4 1/2 years at the Moses Lake plant, 90 percent were downer cattle, he said.

No one answered the telephone at Vern's Moses Lake Meat Co. yesterday, and Louthan's claims could not be confirmed.

"They're a mess. I wouldn't eat them myself," Louthan said.

One week after the discovery of mad cow disease, the USDA announced a ban on slaughtering downer cattle for human consumption.

That rule defines downer livestock as animals that cannot stand or walk on their own, including those with broken limbs and nerve damage.

Louthan predicted that despite the current focus on mad cow disease, little real industry change would occur.

"The public eye's going to look at this for about a minute, and then it's going to turn away," he said.

The Legislature is considering various bills in response to the mad cow scare.

Two bills, House Bill 2802 and Senate Bill 6408, would outlaw the transportation and delivery of live downer animals such as cattle, sheep and swine, except for medical care or euthanasia.

Violators would face a maximum penalty of $1,000 in fines and 90 days in jail.

Another bill would align the state with new feed rules announced Jan. 26 by the federal Food and Drug Administration. The agency prohibits the use of poultry litter, mammalian blood and restaurant table scraps in animal feed.

Under SB 6596, those who sell or distribute forbidden feed would face up to a $5,000 fine and a year's imprisonment.

Yesterday, the Senate unanimously passed a bill to broaden and expand the powers of the state's Department of Agriculture.

SB 6107 would let the department issue and enforce quarantines in suspected disease cases, seek warrants to conduct tests and inspections, and order the destruction of quarantined animals.

Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, eats holes in the brains of cattle and is incurable.

The disease is a public health concern because experts say humans can develop a brain-wasting illness, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, from consuming contaminated beef products.

Add P-I Local headlines to