'Til the Cows Come Home....

Stardate 4267.5

Okay, maybe the cows aren't happy, and they definately aren't comign home, but the Alberta Beef producers will surely be happy now that the ridiculous (politically charged) ban on Canadian Beef has been lifted.

That is "I Love Alberta Beef" for the unedercated.

WASHINGTON - The first new shipment of Canadian cattle rolled into the United States on Monday, four days after a federal appeals court ended a two-year-old ban originally instituted because of mad cow disease.

Thirty-five black Angus cattle crossed the border around noon at Lewiston, N.Y., near Niagara Falls, according to the shipper, Schaus Land and Cattle Co. of Elmwood, Ontario. The animals were destined for a Pennsylvania slaughterhouse.

“It’s been a long wait to get cattle to cross the line again,” said company owner Wally Schaus. “We went from 18 trucks to nine, and it was a struggle to keep nine trucks busy, but with the border open again, it won’t be hard to get 20 trucks going again.”

It was last thursday when a panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a Montana ruling that had kept the border closed. Canadian beef has been banned in the US since May 2003. The thing that gets me is that the ban "hurt th eUS meatpacking industry" which meant the loss of 8000 jobs... Yeah, how about Canada's cattle industry? Estimates are at a whopping $5.7 Billion. Lets ship them out!!!