cows_die_in_cages me hamburger? are you sure? 030107 ... what a beautiful world Cattle generally spend the final months of their lives on massive feedlots, crammed together by the thousands on dirt, feces, and mud in holding pens. People can smell these places for miles around, but the animals who have to live there can never escape, so they often suffer from painful respiratory diseases. The animals, natural ruminants, are fed a high-protein diet that wreaks havoc on their digestion (and kills many of them; one-third of feedlot deaths are a result of digestive diseases) and may cause liver abscesses, bloating (blamed for about one-fourth of feedlot deaths), cow polio (polioencephalomalacia), foot rot, and bladder rupture. 030107 what's it to you? who go blather from