🚀 go-pugleaf

In <506phv$35j@newsbf02.news.aol.com> asalzberg@aol.com (ASalzberg)
writes: 
>
>August 26, 1996
>
>Cultures Clash in San Francisco Over Live-Animal Food Sales
>
>By TIM GOLDEN
>
>
>   SAN FRANCISCO -- There is a loud... [SNIP SNIP SNIP ... the article
is too long to continue in this thread] ....
>   The whapping is the sound of meat cleavers coming down on the heads
of
>live turtles and frogs. The thumps are live fish striking the butcher
>block before scaling. The orders are for more. 
>
>   "When I was a little girl in Shanghai," Mrs. Chang says... [SNIP}

IMHO,
The real issue with most of the food operations where live products (I
use the term 'live' loosely, as many creatures in these stores seem to
be coma-like) are sold is that, - what was an acceptable food handling
pratice in Shanghai is *frequently* not an acceptable pratice here
because of public health laws in the United States, as well as in many
of the countries of the world.  I doubt that anyone would complain
about live creatures/animals if they were kept in a clean sanitary
healthfull condition... but frequently they are not!

China has had many extremely large outbreaks of food borne diseases
such as Hepatitus that are directly attributable to poor sanitary
pratices in the preparation and storage of food products.  Aside from
the animal rights issues, we need to keep a sharp regulatory focus on
the very real issues of sound public health pratices in the storage and
sale of food products. REMEMBER, these products are being sold to the
public... this is not a private store selling only to friends of the
same cultural ethnicity. Therefore, anyone who walks into these stores
should be able to consider the food sources as safe and up to the
public health standards in this country!  This is simply very basic
public health and consumer protection!

-DF