LETHBRIDGE, Alberta - In the heart of Canada's cattle country, ranchers feel a bond with their American colleagues, one built on a century of trade.
My area was settled by Texans and Texan cattle
and cattle have been moving back and forth ever since said rancher Neil Jahnke, who runs 1,200 head near Gouldtown, in southwest Saskatchewan.
He and other Canadian ranchers view their land as a range over which cattle, feed and processed beef move back and forth freely between Canada and the United States. The border is just a line on a map.
They insist the North American cattle industry is so intertwined that it makes little sense to differentiate between American and Canadian beef. That's why they're angry about American finger pointing following last year's discoveries of mad-cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, in an Alberta Black Angus cow and a Washington state Holstein traced to Alberta.
What really upsets them are efforts by some in the American cattle industry and politics to distance themselves from Canadian beef, including an ongoing U.S. ban on imports. They say that appears to blame Canada for the two cases of the brain-wasting disease.
We've never viewed BSE as a Canadian or U.S. problem it's a North American problem
Jahnke said.
There's a real overreaction and hysteria over minimal risk to human health
complained Arno Doerksen, a rancher in Gem and chairman of Alberta Beef Producers.
In all reality
the border should be opened tomorrow
said Rick Paskal, a rancher and feedlot operator in nearby Pitcher Butte.
Still unknown is the source of the disease that infected that cow and the Washington state Holstein, which testing in December also determined had BSE.
That didn't stop U.S. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., from calling for all beef from cattle born, raised and slaughtered in the United States to be clearly labeled, and for all Canadian beef to be banned from America.
We all know now the mad-cow incident originated in Canada
Daschle said last week.
U.S. Department of Agriculture veterinarians believe the diseased Holstein was born a few months before the United States and Canada banned use of cattle byproducts in feed in 1997.
U.S. ranchers are anxious to reopen markets in dozens of countries that slammed shut after the Washington mad-cow case, and Canadian ranchers fear their business will be sacrificed to protect American trade.
The United States is Canada's biggest beef customer, and the ban has cost the Canadian cattle industry an estimated $2 billion since May.
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