Washcall: Mad Cow database no more; war dogs memorial?

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WASHINGTON - After spending nearly six years and $142 million developing it, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has pulled the plug on the program it designed to respond fast to contain a mad-cow or other livestock disease outbreak.

After a cow was found to be infected with mad cow in 2003, the George W. Bush administration established the National Animal Identification System, which was designed to give ID numbers to cows, pigs, poultry and other livestock.

If an animal was found to come down with a fast-moving disease like foot-and-mouth, federal officials could tap the database and immediately trace where and when the animal had been, identify other animals at risk, and quickly impose a quarantine.

Advocates said the system would enhance the export of beef, pork and dairy products by reassuring foreign markets that the goods are safe, and vastly enhance the health of America's livestock and its industry.

But since the program began in 2004, ranchers, farmers and others bombarded the Ag department with objections, saying it was too expensive and time consuming, infringed on their privacy rights and amounted to unjustified interference by government.

Acknowledging a retreat, Ag secretary Tom Vilsack this month announced he had heard the objections and would scrap the Bush program, and replace it with one that is more "flexible." It would be implemented by the states, not the feds, and would encourage the use of lower-cost technology.

Estimates are that it will take two years before the new system is in place.

The nearly decade-long quest by former Vietnam War dog handlers to establish the first national monument to their best friends -- and all such military canines who served before and since -- has taken a major step forward. The Pentagon has now approved the design of the monument, slated to be placed at Fort Belvoir, Va., with ground breaking hoped for in 2011.

The memorial will feature a bronze statue of a military dog handler, surrounded by statues of a Doberman pinscher, German shepherd, Labrador retriever and Belgian malinois -- the most common breeds used for detecting explosives, tracking, serving as sentries and other vital tasks.

For more information on the monument -- which will take an estimated $850,000 in donations to become reality -- go to http://uswardogs.org or http://www.jbmf.us.

The toll of the Washington "snowpocalypse" continues to grow. The latest bad news is the damage done to the celebrated cherry blossom trees, many of which suffered jagged tears to their trunks and the loss of their canopies. Branches, some as thick as six inches, also broke off as a result of the weight of two blizzards worth of snow and accompanying gale-force gusts.

The National Park Service says most of the trees, though a bit raggedy, will survive, but their estimated peak bloom date may come after the end of the National Cherry Blossom Festival, which runs from March 27 to April 11.

Last year was a good one for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency's fleet of satellites, which helped locate -- and save -- 195 people in life-threatening situations in the Gulf of Mexico, the Arizona desert and elsewhere.

The satellites detected and located distress signals from downed pilots, shipwrecked fishing vessels and even a hiker suffering from heat exhaustion in the desert northeast of Tucson, Ariz.

In all, 33 people equipped with personal locator beacons -- which more and more backwoods hikers, mountain climbers and skiers are using -- were found and saved, NOAA said.

(E-mail Lisa Hoffman at hoffmanl(at)shns.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)

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