Conduct Of The Minister Of Agriculture With Regard To Spongiform Encephalopathy And Cats

EDM number 983 in 1989-90, proposed by Harry Cohen on 14/05/1990.

That this House notes the exchange in the committee on the Food Safety Bill on 29th March, between the honourable Member for Leyton and the Agriculture Minister, the honourable Member for Penrith and the Border, in which the former said, at column 123, 'I feed my cats every day; no doubt the cat food contains a lot of offal and much of that might well be infected.' and called for a straight answer from the Minister on whether that was so; and that the Minister replied, at column 125, 'I do not want to get into the position where I as a politician go into a crazy panic over pet food, when all the evidence is against there being any risk whatever of the disease jumping species to cats and dogs. I could ban the pet food for no good reason and the scientists could a year later say I was wrong' and stated that policy on a serious issue such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy should not be based on the love of the honourable Member for Leyton for his cat; notes the reports of 10th May of the cat in Bristol with the species equivalent of bovine spongiform encephalopathy and calls for immediate action to ban any potential infected offal or meat from pet food or, failing that, that the Minister considers his position and resigns.

This motion has been signed by a total of 28 MPs.