E. coli conservatism (21): a tour d'horizon

By Rick Perlstein on July 12, 2007 - 4:32pm.

David Goldstein of the Horse's Ass blog, the nation's premier professor of E.-coli-conservative-ology, offers up an outstanding synthesis of where we are now in the food safety crisis, and what it all means.

In November 2006, America's dogs and cats started dying painful, mysterious and sometimes gruesome deaths--canaries in the coal mine of a food safety system on the verge of collapse. Previously healthy pets would suddenly vomit blood and bile, produce bloody diarrhea and lose control of bladder and bowel. Some animals displayed unquenchable thirst, while others refused to eat or drink at all. Victims became lethargic and withdrawn, their limbs wobbly, eyes cloudy and stomachs painfully distended. Then the seizures set in.