Gulf cattle ranchers fear toxins after oil spill

[Forkboy]

VENICE Louisiana (Reuters) - The cattle in these parts don't seem to mind the helicopters hauling oil booms overhead, nor the response boats hurrying past their banks.

But the oil that British energy giant BP is scrambling to clean up from its massive Gulf of Mexico spill threatens the animals' grazing land and the income of the ranchers who own them.

Over 1,000 head of cattle graze on marshy islands off Louisiana's southeast tip and thousands more are found in the coastal low-lying pastures highly susceptible to flooding.

The petroleum and cattle industries have managed to co-exist over the years. But now, ranchers fear a hurricane in this watery southeastern area of the state could wash the oil onto grazing land, poisoning their livestock and ruining their value.

http://www.desdemonadespair.net/2010/07/gulf-cattle-ranchers-fear-toxins-after.html

[Zoeisright]

1. I wonder who most of them voted for.

I doubt that it was Al Gore.

[valerief]

2. That's why I was thinking. This oil and the dispersant toxins are entering OUR food chain.

We'll all suffer from it, not just "those folks in the Gulf." That's, of course, bad enough, but the scope of damage is much, much broader.