A few weeks ago a citizen in a remote village in the northern province of Hail filed a complaint at the local police station. He claimed that six of his camels had died after eating clover bought from a local market.
I don’t know what became of his complaint since I have never been able to find any follow-up. I hope that somebody out there can tell me what the outcome was as I am very interested.
It is true that the victims were animals and not humans. The very fact, however, that the animals died after eating contaminated fodder, as their owner alleges, raises the question of whether our quality control laboratories and food inspectors are doing the jobs they are being paid to do. What is required is that the relevant authorities must give us assurances that the feed for livestock and chickens sold here in the Kingdom is one hundred percent safe. In other words, we want to know that the meat, the milk and milk products we consume are all free of contamination. Most importantly, we want to know if these products are safe since the animals producing them were not fed crushed bones or the remains of other animals.
The entire world has followed with panic the news of the discovery of mad cow disease in many countries. People now know exactly what caused the unfortunate cows to go mad; they were apparently fed fodder that contained the remains of other animals.
It is fortunate that our camels are evidently more humane and generous than animals in other countries since they have chosen to perish instead of endangering the lives of us who consume their meat or milk. We are facing a very serious situation; it is a matter of life or death since it concerns people’s health.
People continue to consume animal products without knowing what the animals were fed on. The feed could very well have been mixed with remains of animals or chickens. The vegetables and fruits we eat could very well have been grown on farms using contaminated water where heavy doses of insecticides were used. These products could have been genetically modified, given their huge sizes and attractive shapes. Otherwise, why are people increasingly wondering about high rates of cancer and other diseases?
Like many others, I am waiting to see our food inspectors paying visits on round-the-clock shifts in vegetable markets, abattoirs, cold stores and other places selling or storing food, taking random samples and examining them in quality control laboratories.
