blurb from today's news....

USDA says sick cow was born in Texas

By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY Thu Jun 30, 6:27 AM ET
The USA's second case of mad cow disease was in a beef cow born, raised and slaughtered in Texas, making it the nation's first home-grown example of the brain-wasting disease,
Department of Agriculture officials said Wednesday.

The animal was a 12-year-old Brahman cross-breeding cow that had been taken to a pet-food plant in Waco, Texas, in November. Brahman traits are prized by cattle growers for making other breeds heartier.

It was a downer, meaning it couldn't walk on its own and was therefore deemed unfit for human consumption, said John Clifford, USDA's chief veterinarian, in an evening news conference.
The plant, which the Agriculture Department would not identify,takes downer, dead, diseased or distressed animals that cannot be used for human food according to federal regulations enacted after the nation's first case of mad cow in December 2003.

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Bush was "texas born and grown," too -- does that mean we can classify him as a "downer" too?

We wish...