First 'mad cow' disease victim in US  'Mad cow' disease, the dreaded brain disolving disease, has arrived in the US. A young woman dying of mad cow disease lies wasted and helpless on her deathbed. She was born in England and lived the first 13 years of her life there with her family before moving to the US ten years ago. Most scientists studying her tragic case agree that she contracted it in England, due to the contamination of meat sold in the 1980s. Her tragedy serves as a lesson of how important it is for government to safeguard our food and to safeguard our blood supply and organ donor supply. Since dog food isn't as regulated as human food, dog food has also been considered a source of contamination in the UK.

'If her family had donated her organs if she had died, which is what they would have done after that car accident, she might have passed that disease onto somebody else. If she had had surgery, even if instruments were sterilized, it's not clear that that gets rid of prion, that's what causes this disease. It's not a virus or a bacteria. It's a prion, which is a protein... ' [Elizabeth Cohen, CNN]

 (CNN TV) (not a good idea to eat dog food anyway... makes you wonder just how safe is dog food for dogs... )

Related: 
Cohen: The United States' first Mad Cow victim - CNN - 17 Oct 2002
New insights on mad cow disease - MSNBC - 17 Oct 2002
Google News Search: mad cow disease US

Staying safe when you have a sniper on the prowl DC Those of us that have dogs know that one thing is for certain: you walk your dog, rain or snow, night or day, deranged sniper or not.... Yesterday, while I was walking our dog. I saw a white chevy astrovan; yikes, I yanked my dog behind a tree and watched the truck roll by. When I walked home, the truck was parked on my street. sheesh. The driver was a repairman... turns out there's only 70,000 trucks just like the sniper truck in the DC area...  (hey, where are my blood pressure pills... I think my blood pressure is going  back up...)  Luckily for us, the Washington Post has published a handy dandy list of how to stay safe(r) when a sniper is in your suburban community: Tips for Staying Safe [Washington Post via Day Pop / Top 40) (Another idea from Al McIntyre: if everyone carried video cameras around and pretended to be shooting video, the sniper would probably never come out from under his rock; what do you think?)

Tip Hotline: 1 (888) 324-9800
Send Your Tips: P.O. Box 7875, Gaithersburg, MD 20898-7875
E-Mail Your Tips: taskforce@co.mo.md.us (hint: fake tips from a fantasy will land you in jail.)

Lessons in trust and love from a 9/11 rescue dog CA 'It's a story of near-mythic proportions: On Sept. 11, 2001, a guide dog led her blind owner to safety from an office on the 78th floor of the World Trade Center. After a harrowing, 45-minute descent down more than six dozen flights of stairs, the pair made their way to safety through the debris of the collapsed twin towers...' Heroic 9/11 dog heads to Pleasanton [Tri-Valley Herald]