Vegetarian Rani Sheen opens an op-ed for Eye Weekly about the BSE/vCJD scare thusly,
As a lifelong vegetarian, I can’t help but feel perversely jovial about the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE, or Mad Cow disease) crisis in the Canadian beef industry.
. . .
The mechanics and demands of meat industries are selfish, without concern for animal or human suffering, and ultimately unsustainable. If the threat of BSE can give people a scare, and a chance to reflect on the many problems inherent in consuming the products of meat farming, then bring it on. And now I feel too vegetarian for words, so I will go quietly back to my (disease-free) salad, where I belong.
I cannot imagine many other people admitting to feeling even perverse joy over the deaths of more than 100 people. It must take a special sort of person to maintain such high standards.
Source:
The bright side of Mad Cow. Rani Sheen, Eye Weekly, August 21, 2003.