Current Use
Today, pithing is not practiced on animals intended for the human food supply because it may lead to the spread of fragments of neural matter through the carcass, but this method is encouraged for animals in emergency or disease control situations where the meat will not be consumed. USA regulations are currently in place disallowing importation of beef from cows which have been killed in this manner, due to risk of Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or "mad cow") disease. The European Union has also banned the practice on animals intended for human consumption.
Read more about this topic: Pithing
Famous quotes containing the word current:
“The English language may hold a more disagreeable combination of words than “The doctor will see you now.” I am willing to concede something to the phrase “Have you anything to say before the current is turned on?””
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“I have come to believe ... that the stage may do more than teach, that much of our current moral instruction will not endure the test of being cast into a lifelike mold, and when presented in dramatic form will reveal itself as platitudinous and effete. That which may have sounded like righteous teaching when it was remote and wordy will be challenged afresh when it is obliged to simulate life itself.”
—Jane Addams (1860–1935)