Demonstrators Protest Sheep Seizure
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About 75 demonstrators, some dressed as sheep, rallied against a U.S. government agency’s plan to slaughter two flocks of Vermont sheep it says are carrying scrapie, an ailment distantly related to the brain-wasting mad cow disease.
“At least the sheep have brains,” read one of many signs denouncing claims by U.S. Department of Agriculture officials that a few of the Vermont sheep have tested positive for scrapie, which belongs to the category of brain disorders that includes mad cow disease.
The USDA moved last July to seize and kill the two flocks as a health precaution after tests on four of the animals showed they were infected with scrapie. The disease is fatal to the animals but poses no threat to humans.
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