Mad cow disease, no wonder!

January 9, 2004

Dear Editor
Newsweek

There are some funny and quite a few unfunny jokes as to what causes mad cow disease, BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) but in my humble opinion even the scientific community is barking up the wrong tree to diagnose the cause behind this.

In the animal world some are, by nature, vegetarian who are not made to eat meat while some carnivore that eat meat but no grass and vegetables (unlike human beings who are vegetarian, non-vegetarian and carnivore as well). Cow and other cattle fall in the second category. In our part of the world cows are never fed meat and other animal products at all. These animals are not supposed and don't eat meat. But in the western world even cows are fed meat, bones etc. Tampering with nature like this is the root cause behind BSE. I hope people learn lesson from this and soon enough.

With best regards,

Sincerely,

Ratna Sansar Shrestha

An unpublished letter to the editor of Newsweek.