Over in sunny old England — after my morning tea, the fog cleared in me ‘ead and I could focus on the telly — cattle disease has broken out once again.
The wire services are calling this foot-and-mouth disease. Surely this is the sickness hoof-and-mouth disease, because these cud-chewers have hooves, not feet. People have feet. My cats have paws. They all have mouths. People don’t get blank-and-mouth disease. So what’s with the feet?
Research shows that hooves are dead tissue and therefore cannot be infected. But if that’s true, then fingernails are dead so why are there advertisements for nail fungus medicine?
Britain’s Institute of Animal Health explains in a Web site how to rationalize foot over hoof definitively. And the U.S. online news source Slate reported some years ago that it’s one disease with two names.
Also Monday, The Wall Street Journal (no link, it’s fee-based) reported that Norway is banning the castration of pigs, because it’s been deemed unnecessarily cruel. The meat of intact male hogs apparently can taste very gamy. It’s called “boar taint,” it’s due to hormones and has the “tang of sweat and urine.”
T’aint for the meek, nor for the hock or cheek. -30-
