Howard Lyman: Mad Cowboy, Angry About Mad Cow Disease

"Mad cow disease is important today, not just as a deadly food-borne illness, but also as a powerful symbol of all that is wrong about the industrialization of farm animals." ( Eric Schlosser, "Fast Food Nation," Afterword: pg. 272)

"In 1907, Dr. Alzheimer published a treatise about a disease that would one day carry his name. He had two young colleagues who worked with him, Dr. Creutzfeldt and Dr. Jakob, and they too identified a similiar brain-wasting disease that now has Europe in a panic. The brains of cows turn into a sponge-like mass and their behavior is called "mad." The human variant of Mad Cow Disease has been named Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease, or CJD. The protein causing CJD has no DNA, and has been described as more like a crystal than cellular material. In labs, 1000 degree Fahrenheit heat does not destroy this protein particle. Some scientists say that once infected, the incubation period can last anywhere from one month to thirty years. As the human brain turns into a sponge, this spongioform encephalitic condition physically debilitates those so infected."

"Compelling scientific evidence suggests so-called prion disease can and has infected humans... at present, there is no reliable antemortem diagnosis, specific treatment, or vaccine to prevent the disease. The agent thought to be responsible for this unusual class of disease is a rogue protein (called a prion) that, unlike all other agents known to cause infectious disease, contains neither DNA nor RNA. The "bad" prion forms holes or a spongy appearance in the brain in all disease variants, hence the generic designation of spongiform encephalopathy." (Quintessence International, 1998 May, 29:5)

"A 24-year-old vegetarian has been diagnosed with Cruetzfeld-Jacob disease. Sceintists fear that milk and cheese may be the source of infection." (Michael Hornsby, London Times, August 23, 1997)

"The destruction of milk from suspected cows was recommended in England to insure the public's safety... Experiments also indicate that temperatures reached during pasteurization of milk and household cooking does not kill the agent. In the United Kingdom on December 1, 1988 the government announced a ban on the sale of milk from infected cattle..." (Virgil Hulse, M.D., Mad Cows and Milkgate)

"Transmission of prions from infected cattle to humans by oral intake seems no only possible but also very probable." (Annals of Italian Medicine, 1998 Oct, 13:4 ) SPECIAL THANKS TO ROBERT COHEN, AUTHOR OF "MILK: A-Z", ISBN 0-9659196-8-4. for the above quotes)

"Mad cow disease is a member of a family of diseases called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, or TSEs, seen in various animal species including humans, sheep, cows, mink, deer and cats. TSEs are known by different names in different animals - for example, Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease (CJD) in humans, scrapie in sheep, chronic wasting syndrome in deer and elk, and bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE in cows. Whatever animal is afflicted, however, the diseases have similar characteristics. They attack the central nervous system, causing disintegration of the brain; they have a long incubation period between the time when infection first occurs and the appearance of symptoms; they are always fatal; and they are transmitted by the eating of animals or animal parts, especially brains and spinal cords." "Mad Cow Disease, Parts One and Two," Rachel's Environment and Health Weekly, July 9 and July 16,1998 [02.06.27:01]

"The new cases of the human form of mad cow disease are called new variant Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease (nvCJD)." Scott, Michael, et al, "Compelling transgenic evidence for transmission of bovine spongiform encephalopathy prions in humans," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dec 21, 1999, pg 15137-424 [02.06.27:02]

"Meat is a lush medium for pathogenic bacteria and germs; it can harbor parasites, toxic chemicals, and metal contaminants. And now it can bring death by brain-rot." (Steve Bjerklie, Executive Editor, Meat Processing magazine) [02.06.27:03]

"The infectious agent of mad cow disease remains infective even after exposure for an hour to a temperature of 680 degrees Celsius - enough to melt lead - and can withstand antibiotics, boiling water, bleach, formaldehyde, and a variety of solvents, detergents and enzymes known to destroy most known bacteria and viruses." Rampton, Sheldon, and Staubcr, John, "Mad Cow U.S.A.: Could the Nightmare Happen Here?' PR Watch; See also Institute of Food Science and Technology (UK), "Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE): part 1/6, part I of a 6-part position paper, http://www.ifst.org/hottop5.htm [02.06.27:0

"More than 167,000 British dairy cattle died from the bovine form of this disease, popularly known as mad cow disease, between 1985 and 1995." Hansen, Michael. "The Reasons Why FDA's Feed Rule Won't Protect Us from BSE," Genetic Engineering News, July 1997, pg 4, See also, Al Lawrence, "FDA Proposal Would Ban Using Animal Tissue in Feed," New York Times, Jan 3, 1997, pg A14 [02.06.27:05]

"During this entire time, British health officials adamantly maintained that there was nothing unsafe about eating British beef. Even as evidence mounted to the contrary, the government held stubbornly to this position. Then, in 1996, a panel of government scientists told Parliament that the "most likely explanation" for new cases of the human form of mad cow disease was that BSE had moved from cows to people. By that time, more than one million infected cows had been consumed in Britain.

In the next few years, more than 2.5 million British dairy cattle infected with mad cow disease were killed and incinerated at extremely high temperatures in an attempt to eradicate the disease." Darnton, John, "Britain Ties Deadly BrainDisease to Cow Ailment," New York Times. March 21, 1996, A1 [02.06.27:06]

From Mr. Lyman's Web Site:

My name is Howard Lyman * * * This morning I'm going to do my own introduction *** I want to talk to you today about a case I know well - me! I'm a fourth generation farmer, and own a ranch in Montana. I had 7,000 head of cattle, thousands of acres of arable land and as many as 30 employees. I can remember back to the first time I ever wrote a cheque for a million dollars. I looked at it and I said, "I have really arrived. I'm at the top of the tree." I thought I was the farmer of the year. The fact is I had some events in my life that changed what I'm about.

One of the changes is that back in 1979 I was paralysed from the waist down, I could not walk. The doctors told me that I had one chance in a million of ever walking again if the tumour on my spinal cord was on the inside of the cord. Now when somebody gives you the odds of one in a million, what they are really saying to you is pick out the wheelchair you like because you will be in it the rest of your life.

***What we do everyday has an enormous impact on what's happening in the world. The fork is the most dangerous weapon in the arsenal of Homo sapiens. They took me up and operated on me for 12 hours. Tumour was not only on the inside of the spinal cord but also under it. They could not lift the spinal cord up to get to the tumour. All they could do was pick a nerve and cut it, hoping the tumour was attached like a fish on a line. They pulled out a tumour about the size of my thumb. I walked out of the hospital after a one-in-a-million operation.

When I got to that point, I was a person weighing about three hundred pounds, with sky-high blood pressure and a cholesterol reading over three hundred. I would sit down and have lunch and my nose would bleed. I knew I was in trouble. I wondered what could I do to change things. I heard about vegetarianism. Now remember in Montana there were only two vegetarians. Vegetarianism was not real popular over there, but I thought I needed to do something to change my life, so I decided to become the world's worst vegetarian ever. Lettuce and dairy products: for one year that was my diet. During that time I lost some weight, and my blood pressure and cholesterol came down slightly. I thought that if I could do that as the world's worst vegetarian, just think what I could do if I were a vegan. Then I thought, "Oh God! Man cannot live by lettuce alone!" I never met a bean I didn't like. So it was lettuce and beans, then whole-wheat bread. Then I thought of Thanksgiving dinner, since everything for Thanksgiving dinner could be made without animal products except for the turkey. From 1979 up to today I've lost over 100 pounds in weight, my blood pressure is normal and my cholesterol reading has gone down from 300 to 135. The reason I'm standing in front of you today is that I went vegetarian. The reason I'm alive is because I cared enough to look at what I was putting on my fork. ***

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