73% of U.S> Livestock Show Signs of Clinical Depression

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WASHINGTON, DC-According to a joint study conducted by the FDA and the

Department of Agriculture, nearly three out of four members of the U.S.

livestock population show signs of clinical depression, with the vast

majority of cases going untreated, government officials said Monday.

" The FDA is charged with the task of preventing potentially disastrous

outbreaks of disease within the U.S. livestock population, " said Henry

Wolcott, Assistant Undersecretary of Agriculture, Psychiatric Division. " I'm

afraid that, in this case, our intervention came too late. Our study shows

that 73 percent of U.S. cattle, goats, sheep, and swine suffer from serious

psychiatric problems. "

Signs of clinical depression discovered by the researchers include severe

listlessness, lack of motivation, and a flattening of emotional affect

marked by glazed eyes and slow movements.

" Everyone is concerned about mad cow disease or the bird flu, " Wolcott said.

" What the average person fails to appreciate, however, is that mental

disorders can be just as debilitating as physical ones. If you look into

these animals' eyes, you can see the blank gaze of hopelessness and

despair. "

" It's tragic, " Walcott added. " It's no kind of life, not for man or beast. "

Walcott said that millions of animals across the nation wile away the hours

unproductively, not moving until forced to do so by an outside factor, such

as a farmhand or a milking machine.

" Most of the cows we examined barely had the energy to drag themselves from

the barn out to the field, " Walcott said. " Once in the field, they tended to

spend most of their time quietly brooding and chewing cud, showing little to

no willingness to communicate with their herd-member peers. Their depression

was so debilitating that they needed to be coaxed out of inactivity through

the use of hollering, physical force, and, in extreme cases, trained dogs. "

The study also noted the average U.S. cow's tendency to emit low, mournful

moans.

Walcott said that the majority of sheep studied rarely moved during the day,

opting instead to stand in one place, often avoiding sunlight and acting

only when the food supply in the immediate area was depleted.

" Like many undiagnosed depression sufferers, it seems that a lot of U.S.

livestock escape the emotional emptiness of their lives by overeating, "

Walcott said. " Most appear to care nothing about their personal appearance.

And, as any ranch-hand who has ever shoveled manure can tell you, they make

only limited effort to keep their physical surroundings in order. "

Dr. Theodore , author of The Slow Slaughter: Growing Up Livestock In

An Uncaring World, has made combating bovine ennui his personal mission.

" Sadly, much of our nation's livestock feel they have no future, "

said. " They see life as short, brutal, and bereft of purpose. They may

appear to be functioning normally-eating feed, producing milk, and

generating high volumes of fertilizer-but inside, many are just waiting to

die. "

In his book, calls for a federal program to provide Selective

Livestock Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors to animals in need.

" The signs that these animals are depressed were right in front of us, but

too many of us in the food sciences were blinded by narrow-minded

agricultural orthodoxy to see them, " said. " But we can't think this

problem will be solved through medication alone. Cattle have to learn to

believe in themselves. They've got to see themselves as more than walking

hunks of meat or they'll never get better. "

The government's report also contained preliminary data suggesting a rate as

high as 95 percent for severe anxiety disorder among U.S. poultry. Turkeys

and other non-affected poultry are completing Critical Incident Stress

Management (CISM) courses to help their feathered brethren.